% E. WEST. 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



ShelfA. 



Ai'W K 



UNITED STATES OF AME 



Mfc 



AN ADDRESS 



ON THE 



Fiftieth Anniversary 



CLASS OF 1832, 

Parts op which weee read at a Class Meeting at 
Union College, June 27, 1882. 



t 



S 



CHARLES E. WEST. 



Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci 
Lectorem delectando pariter que monendo. 

—Horace. 




BROOKLYN, N.Y.: 

TREMLETT & CO., PRINTERS, 326-330 FULTON STREET. 
1882. 






Copyright. 1883, 
By CHARLES E. WEST. 






APOLOGY. 



Of what value is a book without a preface ? And what is a 
preface but a postcript ? In a letter, it forms its conclusion and is 
put last ; in a book, it is the introduction, notwithstanding it is the 
afterthought, used either in the way of explanation or of apology. 
It is here used in the latter sense. 

When I sat down to prepare this class-paper, I little thought 
that it would reach its present dimensions ; or, that its publication 
would be solicited. The compliment, I fear, comes from an undue 
partiality, and is an undeserved honor. 

Our last meeting at the college was one which will never be 
forgotten. To look into the faces of classmates we had not seen 
in fifty years and observe the changes time had wrought ; to grasp 
by the band the companions of our boyhood ; to listen to the tales 
of those who had returned to their Alma Mater, perhaps, for the 
last time ; to pass in review the incidents of each others' lives ; to 
recount the virtues and achievements of those who had passed 
away, and drop a silent tear in affectionate remembrance ; to fore- 
cast our own departure which is so near at hand ; to walk about 
the college grounds and think that fifty classes had come and 
gone ; to realize that the most of the men we knew in our college 
days had joined the long, silent procession and had forever disap- 
peared from human vision ; to realize all this, seemed like an 
unreal dream — shadows in the shadow-land. But, after all, we 
felt sure that we had not lost our personality, — that we were the 
same sentient, thoughtful, active beings, as in days of yore. We 
could laugh and cry. Our sympathies were as keen and fresh 



IV. 



as ever. Naught had grown old but the caskets of the living 
spirits. Time, thank God, had naught else he could work upon ! 
We had reached a mature manhood, and could look back over the 
track we had pursued and see the dangers we had escaped and the 
conquests we had won. We could look across the narrow chasm 
before us and see the shining gates of pearl. It was a pentecostal 
season. The Divine protection was invoked that our steps might 
be guided in the future as they had been in the past. 

After finishing what I had to say of classmates and of the 
President and Professors, I was tempted to take a survey of the 
wonderful panorama of events of the last half century ; but I soon 
found that I was sailing on a mare mcognitum, and that if I ever 
wished to make port again, I must turn the prow of my vessel and 
sail homeward. 

Pardon me for the great length of my manuscript. As it is for 
private eyes and not for the public, I feel sure that your criticisms 
will be charitable. I shall be happy if I have interested you by 
calling attention to some of the mile-stones which have been set up 
in the grand march of civilization in our day. It has been a great 
privilege to live and witness the marvellous development in every 
department of human thought and enterprise. To the preparation 
of this address, I lay no claim to originality. I have drawn from 
the accumulation of scientific and statistical materials of the past 
half century. 

I regret that I have not been able to learn about some of our 
classmates, whose names are not starred in the triennial catalogue. 
If living, their residence and occupation are unknown to me. 

I am sorry that I had not the materials for sketches of many 
classmates who achieved honorable positions in their several pro- 
fessions and spent their lives for the benefit of society. Many of 
them were bright and shining lights. 

It was a great disappointment that some of our brethren whom 



V. 

we had expected failed to come. Their letters of regret explained 
the reasons of their absence. 

From our first Class-circular, we learn that the honor of organ- 
izing a Class Association belongs to the Class of '32. I know not 
whether onr example has been followed by any other Class or not. 
At any rate, it has been a source of great pleasure to us who have 
participated in it, and we can recommend it to other Classes. Such 
meetings are also an advantage to the college. 

We would be wanting in courtesy not to acknowledge our 
obligations to the college authorities, and especially to Professor 
Lameroux, who secured rooms for us at the hotel and accommoda- 
tions for our meeting at the college. 

Grateful, dear Classmates, for the privilege of attending our 
recent meeting, and for the pleasure your presence and words 
afforded me, 

I am sincerely yours, 

CHAELES E. WEST. 

Brooklyn Heights Seminary, 
October, 1882. 



ADDRESS. 



Classmates of '32 : 

By a resolution of the Class, at its last meeting in 1862, a 
committee consisting of Charles E. AYest, Hamilton W. Robinson 
and A. P. Cnmings, was appointed to publish a corrected catalogue 
of the Class, with an address, and the minutes of that meeting ; 
and they were also authorized to call a meeting in 1867. 

Unfortunately, there has been no meeting of the Class for the 
past twenty years ; and, as my associates of the committee have 
passed away, it has fallen to my lot to discharge this official duty 
alone. 

Our first meeting was in July, 1812. After an absence of ten 
years, it was a pleasure to return to our Alma Mater and renew 
the friendships of early days. It was a joyful occasion. Our 
fraternal greetings were sincere and hearty. We had seen some- 
thing of the world. Many of us had entered upon professional 
life. Large spheres of usefulness were opening to our ambitions. 
The world seemed bright. Many an hour was spent in telling our 
experiences. Some had married and their firesides were made 
musical with the prattle of children. Our venerable President 
was living and in active service. It was delightful to meet again 
the "Old Man Eloquent" and receive his benediction. Many of 
our professors were actively engaged in college work. The 
Mohawk valley was unchanged — the quiet river still pursued its 
placid way. " Dump " itself, although a University city, had not 
undergone such commercial alterations as to obliterate its old 
land-marks and make it unrecognizable ! We readily found our 
way from the railway station to the college grounds, but missed 
some of the familiar signs, as Clute's and Duncan's, on Union 
street. The college buildings had not undergone a particle of 
change. The same massive walls — the same brick-paved halls — 
the same old stair-ways with balustrades substantial enough for a 



2 

military fortress — the same unique rooms with the doctor's anthra- 
cite stoves — parlor, bed-room and store-room all in one. In front, 
the same beautiful panorama of landscape and sky, spreading far 
to the west. In the rear, the college gardens, filled with evergreens 
and sweet-scented bushes, especially "Captain Jack's" garden, 
which was a new creation and has since become so celebrated. 
Being a farmer's son, I remember the questions he used to put to 
me as to the best modes of planting and sowing of seeds, for he 
commenced his gardening during our college course. How warmly 
he greeted us on our decennial return ! He was nature's noble- 
man and commanded the love and veneration of all his students. 

Yes, the college buildings and the instructors were as in days 
of yore — but, in all other respects how changed ! Among the 
students we saw no familiar faces ! Classes had come and gone ! 
We were strangers and received no tokens of recognition ! We 
had had our day, and had gone out into the great world never 
again to be summoned to college duties ! We felt isolated and 
alone ; and with closed doors we shut ourselves in and communed 
with each other. It was a precious season. The absent, the living 
and dead, were enquired about; many had gone to the silent 
land, qui fuerunt, sed nunc ad astra. Our poet, John W. Brown, 
read an elegiac poem commemorative of the fifteen deceased 
members. He took as a motto to his thanatousion the inscrip- 
tion upon Hinman's monument, in the college grounds, who 
was the first to die : — 

" Etsi procul a propinquis. 

" In morte quiescit. 

" Amici plurimi, non sine lacrymis. 

"Sepulchrum revisent." 

The introductory verse of his hymn is as follows : 
" From the world's crowded scene of toil and strife, 

From various paths through which our steps have sped 
With various fortune in the race of life 

We come these classic halls again to tread 
To greet the living and to mourn the dead — 

Ten years of stern or bright vicissitude 
Have passed in action big with hope or dread, 

And now we stand again where oft we stood 

In those remembered days, a youthful brotherhood." 



Four decennial anniversaries have passed since that memorable 
meeting of " the seventeen" eleven of whom have since gone to the 
spirit-land; and of these is our sweet poet Brown, who sang for 
others — but now for himself as well : 

" Many are gone, whose morning hours were blest 

With promise of a bright and glorious day ! 
Some gentle souls sank quietly to rest 

As the departing sunlight melts away 

'Mid the delicious bloom and balm of May. 
Some lie on distant shores, and virtuous deeds 

Have made their memory holy, and the ray 
Of blest example to the gloom succeeds, 
Cheering the heart that o'er the loved and lost ones bleels. 

" Fair, fair in memory's moonlight are they all. 

The young, the bright, the noble. It is true 
The silent grave returneth not our call ; 

Our voice wakes not their slumber ; from the voice 

Of living men, from 'neath that arch of blue, 
From this fair earth forever are they gone ; 

Yet be it ours to pay the tribute due 
To noble hearts, not with unmanly moan 
But in that worthy grief which hallows sorrow's tone." 

You will pardon me for recalling some of the departed with 
whom I was on terms of intimacy during our college course and 
afterwards. And first, Butler Goodrich, Jr. By consent of his 
classmates, he was regarded, I think, as the most accomplished 
scholar in his class. Our acquaintance began in the winter of 
1825-6 at the old Pittsfield Academy, and was continued at the 
Berkshire Gymnasium, a celebrated school in Western Massachu- 
setts. 

My acquaintance at that time with young men from different 
parts of the country and from foreign lands, was of immense 
value to me, some of whom have become distinguished in society, 
— as Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Bishop of Western New York ; 
Franklin Clinton, son of De Witt Clinton, who entered the U. S. 
Navy and died young ; Thomas Allen, Member of Congress from 
St. Louis; Henry Shaw, the eccentric "Josh Billings;" Mariano 
Yaldez, the revolutionist, of Peru, South America. 



But, of all the young men in the gymnasium with whom I 
was most intimately associated, was my townsman, Butler Good- 
rich. He was modest and gentle in disposition. He had an 
analytic mind, was fond of mathematics and abstract science, 
had great fondness for the Latin and Greek languages — was untir- 
ing in his application to study. His masterly scholarship soon 
attracted attention, and the highest rank was unanimously awarded 
him. We were poor boys, and found it difficult to break away 
from business to attend school. It was in the retirement of our 
bed-room, we passed a sleepless night in maturing our plans for 
obtaining an education at whatever sacrifice it might cost us. I 
shall never forget that night. It was in the month of April, 1828. 
When the morning light broke, our ears were saluted by the songs 
of robin and blue-bird. Our plans were formed, and we arose 
from our beds as happy as the birds. For nearly ten years we 
were as one — our intimacy was perfect. We could not bear to be 
separated in vacation, but passed it at each other's houses. We 
entered Union College in 1830, an:l graduated two years later — 
the year of the terrible Asiatic cholera. 

In the fall of 1833, Goodrich came to Albany, and passed a 
year as a teacher in the Albany Female Academy. I had preceded 
him and established a school for boys. We were together once 
more. We attended Rev. E. 1ST. Kirk's church — had heard him 
preach in the college chapel. In religion Goodrich was skeptical. 
But he liked the earnest and devout eloquence of Mr. Kirk. 
During a religious awakening in his church, we became interested 
in a series of religious services. They were novel to us ; and, at 
first, we attended them more from curiosity than from a desire of 
gaining any personal advantage, till at last we began to feel that 
there might be something in religion worthy of attainment. We 
had many misgivings. We did not like the methods. They 
seemed mechanical. Submission was mortifying to manly pride. 
Night after night we fought against it ; till at last, our conviction 
of the necessity of personal religion led us, after many struggles, to 
sign the following pledge : 

" We solemnly pledge ourselves that we will attend to the 
subject of religion immediately ; and, if permitted to attend 



meeting to-morrow evening, we will do everything in our power 

for the salvation of our souls. 

" Charles E. AYest, 
" B. Goodrich, Jr. 

"Albany, February 17th, 1834." 

What memories crowd upon my mind as I copy these few lines 
which had such a practical bearing upon our destiny. 

Many years after, Dr. Kirk sent me the following note and a 
" Pastor's Sketch :" 

" My dear West : 

" It just occurred to me to put in print our memorable 
interview, because the statement of it, has been beneficial to other 
persons. I shall make ISTo. 2 handle the difficulties about com- 
munity with three persons and one essence. 

" Your affectionate friend, 

" Edw. K Kirk. 
" Boston, April 2, 1856." 

The sketch, entitled, "Intellectual Difficulties in Keli- 
gion," No. 1, "The Being of God," I give in full : 

" There are such difficulties ; and it is very desirable that they 
be removed so far as explanation and suggestion can do it. And 
it is equally important to guard against an advantage the enemy of 
the truth often takes by making it appear that these difficulties are 
peculiar to religion ; and that, therefore, persons who have not 
leisure for much study are excusable for not attending to religious 
doctrines. 

" Now, it should be noticed that the higher any subject rises in 
intrinsic grandeur or permanent importance to man, the more does 
it lie out of the ordinary range of thought, and the more does it 
require of the employment of those powers which are not most 
frequently in exercise. 

" Man is made to be conversant with spiritual just as much as 
with material objects ; and 3^et the daily and hourly exercise of the 
senses makes man more familiar with the latter than with the 
former ; and thus our susceptibility to impressions and to evidence 
depends upon our habits. A mere mathematician becomes exceed- 



6 

ingly keen in his perceptions of mathematical evidence ; but he is 
exposed to overlook a kind of evidence immeasurably more 
important for him. 

" I once knew two young men who were distinguished as 
mathematical students. They had formed the habit of requiring a 
diagram of any object to be presented to the eye before they could 
form a definite conception of it, and then a mathematical proof was 
required before they would believe anything not palpable to the 
senses. 

"In this state of mind they were both awakened to a conscious- 
ness of guilt and depravity in the sight of God. Under the pressure 
of this load, they retired from a religious meeting to pray alone. 
When they met each other the next morning, they found that each 
had encountered the same obstacle, and had yielded to it. They 
agreed to go immediately to their pastor and seek his aid. The 
substance of the conversation I will now give : 

" Pastor — -What is it, my young friends? 

" Student — I went to my room "and kneeled by the chair to 
give myself to God. The chair was there, the wall, the furniture ; 
and I was there ; but there was no one else. And it seemed to be 
absurd for me to beat the air with vain words, so I arose from my 
knees discouraged ; and, meeting my friend B. this morning, I 
found that he had passed through the same process ; so we have 
come to seek your aid in the case, 

" Pastor — Most happy am I to meet you at any time, but 
particularly under such circumstances. Your difficulty is not an 
uncommon one. It arises from many causes which are common 
to us all as compound beings, partly sensuous, partly spiritual. 
But I deem it not improbable that in your case it has been 
aggravated by your disproportional development of the mathe- 
matical powers. So far, however, as the difficulty is mainly 
intellectual, you may easily be relieved. 

" To you both it seems as if you do not and cannot believe in 
the existence of mere spirit. But, however common, it is an 
egregious mistake. You believe in spirit just as much as in 
matter, and you know as much and even more about it. It is not 
important now to prove the latter point. But I would suggest the 



ground of the assertion. Matter, you know, by a foreign testimony, 
brought to the sjoirit, but with spirit you are acquainted by the direct 
action of the knowing faculty ; by that purest, profoundest, clearest, 
most indisputable of all modes of knowing — consciousness. 

" But, to leave that. Imagine, now, that while we are conversing 
together, I should fall dead before you. Mark now the change in 
your whole mental action. In an instant, supposing the fact 
settled, that life has irrevocably passed away, you would begin 
to> conceive and speak of me as gone. But how is that ? Who am 
I? All that you ever saw or heard of me is still there. The 
diagram is there before your eyes, and yet you begin to think and 
speak of me as gone — all my qualities you discuss, speaking of 
your regard for me and my friendship toward you. But of whom 
are you speaking? You never saw my spirit, its size, form or 
color. And yet so perfect is your belief of the existence of that 
invisible being of which even your imagination can make no 
picture ; and not only of its existence, but also of its being all 
you ever thought of as constituting my personal existence, that you 
follow it in thought to unknown worlds and refuse' to talk to that 
visible body any longer. 

" You believe in spirit, in Grod. Now return to your rooms and 
meet Grod there as you meet me here. Kneel and speak to Him as 
you now sit and speak to me. He hears you, He sees you ; and, 
if a doubt of his existence or presence comes over you, look at 
your hand and ask who contrived it ; lay it on your heart and ask 
who keeps it beating. 

"They retired. The next interview with their pastor was a 
joyful occasion. One of them in a few years went to heaven from 
the midst of his successful labors as a student of theology. The 
other still lives to honor the cause of his Saviour and train the 
youthful mind to the knowledge of divine and human things. 

"E. N. K." 

In July, 1834, Groodrick resigned his position in the Academy 
and entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton. On the 18th 
of November he wrote me : "I have been already several days 
within the walls of a theological seminary. It is not in the power, 
of pen and ink to describe my feelings as I left Albany. It was 



beyond my cool philosophy to check the tears that would, unbid- 
den, drop from my eyes. Was it leaving Albany and my friends 
there that caused this flow of melancholy ? No ; I think I could, 
without one regret, wave all the pleasures and advantages that I 
enjoyed there even for an unknown and precarious enterprise. I 
love Albany, not for its excellences, but for its welcome associations 
to my mind. If I am ever so happy as to enter the regions of the 
blessed, I shall regard Albany as the sacred spot where I first met 
my Saviour, and He took me by the hand and pointed me to 
heaven. At the time I left you, a thousand mixed emotions in 
rapid succession moved my mind ; but what touched me most of 
all was the greatness of my enterprise, and the fact that I must 
leave you, who have stood by me in almost every undertaking in 
life, behind." 

During his connection with the seminary, he often wrote me of 
his work and of the interest he felt in his preparation for the 
ministry — the loftiest ideal of Christian service that could be 
conceived. He was grieved that I did not join him in his studies. 
His cousin, Eev. David White, afterward a missionary to Africa, 
was with him during his last illness and death, and wrote me that 
he died in the triumphs of faith. " It was indeed good to a pious 
heart," he said, "to be present with him in his last and dying 
hours. His views of eternal things were so clear, so elevated, so 
heavenly — his confidence in the Redeemer so firm and unwavering 
— his estimation of his own works so low — his exhortations in the 
service of his blessed Master so pathetic and forcible — his whole 
appearance so unlike to mortality and corruption — that we 
seemed to be looking upon and listening to an inhabitant of that 
world ' where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are 
at rest' 

" On the Monday previous to his death, he enjoyed several 
lucid hours. He had been informed by Dr. Alexander that his 
physicians considered him beyond the reach of medicine, and, to all 
human appearance, very near his end. He received the intelligence 
with calmess and resignation, and said, ' I wish the Lord's will to 
be done.' Shortly after, when all had left him but myself and 
another brother, he discoursed a long time — of death and dying — 



of his prospects — of Ms hopes. He made disposition of his effects, 
arranged all his business with his usual exactness and order, sent 
messages to all his particular friends, and made presents to several 
of them, among whom you were one. He requested me to give 
you the following message : ' Tell West the world has many 
allurements. I believe that he has struggled hard to live above 
their influence ; but still there is danger of living away from the 
path of Christian duty, or hindered in his progress. Tell him to 
live near to Christ.' As a token of his dying remembrance and 
affectionate regard, he requested me to present you with his 
valuable flute. 

" It may not be improper here to say that Butler often spoke of 
Mr. Kirk, and at one time remarked, ' I have not time nor strength 
to speak of the gratitude I feel for the interest which he has taken 
in me. I remember him with much affection. ' 

" His funeral was attended yesterday (February 14) in the 
chapel of the seminary. Though none of his father's family were 
here to follow his remains to their long home, they were attended 
by a numerous concourse of sympathizing friends. He was borne 
to the grave by his college acquaintances. He will rest in peace. 
His memory is blessed. " David White. 

" Princeton Theological Seminary, 
"February 15, 1836." 

He died at the Seminary, February 12, 1836, in the 27th year 
of his age. The^rs^ bereavement of my life ! 

A committee of his class, of which Rev. E. D. G. Prime, D. D., 
was chairman, was appointed to prepare a memoir of him, and I was 
requested to furnish the materials, and did so. His death was 
deeply lamented by the professors and students. In 1868, I 
obtained permission from the cemetery corporation to remove his 
remains to my lot in the Pittsfield Cemetery. His grave is on the 
bank of his loved Housatonic River, on the opposite side of which, 
and at a short distance, is the house where we spent the night to 
which reference has been made. To conceal my thought from the 
ignoble crowd who wander in cemeteries like ghouls and desecrate 
the soil which covers the precious dust of the dead, I wrote the 
following Latin inscription for the marble which marks his grave : 



10 



Hie sepultce jacel reliquice mei amid qui e terra ad astra translatus 
fuit. Plurimce sunt causae cur ilium semper amabo. Viator, sta et 
si flere vis, tecum revolve adolescentis mortem qui si vixisset 
ornamentum ecclesiw et societatis insigne bene esse promisit. 



Another, and perhaps the most brilliant man of his class, was .. 
Alexander W. Bradford, who died November 5, 1867. 

I was appointed by the American Ethnological Society of New 
York to prepare a minute of his life, services and death, which 
were entered on its records, as follows : 

That in testifying to our respect for the ability, attainments, 
character and usefulness of the deceased, we do not feel inclined 
to indulge in empty panegyric, or enter into lengthy discussion of 
the combination of excellences which formed his manhood and 
made him conspicuous in his professional and private relations, as 
councillor, scholar, Christian and friend. Mr. Bradford was born 
in Albany, N. Y., February 21, 1815. He was the third son of 
Bev. John M. Bradford, D. B\, pastor of the North Dutch Church 
in that city, and received his preparatory education in the Albany 
Academy, then under the care of that accomplished scholar 
T. Romeyn Beck, M. D. — an institution which then took rank 
with the foremost colleges of the State. Here Mr. Bradford 
gave an earnest of the success which was to follow him in the 
arena of professional life. At the age of 15, he entered Union 
College and was the youngest member of his class. In college, 
he was distinguished for acuteness of intellect and diligent appli- 
cation to study. He was particularly fond of mathematics, 
making marked attainments in the higher analysis and in its 
application to mechanics and physical astronomy. In this connec- 
tion, I remember him with pleasure, as an opportunity was afforded 
of witnessing his inventive power on this higher plane of intellec- 
tual discipline. Selecting the legal profession, he was admitted to 
the bar, in 1838. In 1848, he was elected Corporation Attorney, 
and in 1848 was chosen Surrogate of the City and County of 
New York, holding the office till 1858. 

It is not my province to pronounce judgment upon the 



11 

industry or the value of his services in this department of labor. 
This must be done by his legal peers and associates. Here, it is 
sufficient simply to refer to his voluminous reports which were 
prepared with great labor and research, and unite an equitable 
interpretation of the well-established rules of jurisprudence. His 
decisions will command respect in the arbitrament of all difficult 
cases of probate, and upon them will rest his reputation as a 
scholar and jurist. 

After the close of his office as Surrogate, he served one term 
in the Legislature and then resumed the practice of law in New 
York, which he continued until his death. 

For his learning and integrity, Mr. Bradford received numerous 
testimonials of respect. His Alma Mater, in 1852, conferred 
upon him the degree of L.L.D., and elected him a trustee of the 
college. He also served as trustee of Columbia College. He was 
a member of various literary and historical societies of the country ; 
also of the Royal Northern Antiquarian Society of Denmark. 
Ethnology was a favorite study, and had he devoted himself to 
research in this department, he would have achieved honorable 
distinction. As it was, he became a pioneer in American 
Archaeology. His work, entitled "American Antiquities," was 
prepared when a young man, and at a time when scarcely any- 
thing had been written upon the subject, and is characterized by 
diligent research and careful deductions from the mass of facts 
which lay in chaotic confusion — a digest, which will continue to 
be a valuable reference to the student of history. 

But, in estimating the character of our friend, we should be 
wanting in fidelity to him did we neglect to speak of what is 
better than talent, or genius, or learning, or professional reputation 
— did we forget those noble qualities of justice and humanity — 
that regard for truth and moral excellence — that love of God and 
man which characterized his. life, and made him an example 
worthy of imitation. He has gone, leaving a record which will 
grow brighter and brighter in our recollections of him ; and, as we 
journey to the same bourne, let us be grateful that it has been our 
privilege to know him and receive inspiration from his words and 
example. 



12 

Rev. John H. Raymond, LL.D., was born in New York in 
1814. In 1828, he entered Columbia College ; and, after remain- 
ing there for three years, he joined our Class at Union. In 1838, 
he completed his theological studies at Madison University ; was 
appointed professor in Rochester University in 1851 ; was called 
to the Presidency of the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1853 ; 
and, in 1864, he was chosen President of Vassar College for young 
women. 

For fourteen years he presided over that institution, and was 
permitted to witness its great success, and to confer the diploma 
of the college on more than 360 graduates. On August 14, 1878, 
he died in the full maturity of his powers. His great work in the 
establishment of Vassar was done. To its success he had brought 
an organizing mind, a finished education and a large experience in 
the management of institutions. Great wealth was put at his 
disposal with which to organize and equip the several departments 
of instruction. Costly and well arranged college buildings had 
been erected. The question in regard to woman's ability to 
grapple with the higher mathematical and abstract sciences had 
already been determined by Rutgers Female College of New York, 
which is the mother of all the colleges for the higher education of 
women in the United States. 

Dr. Raymond was an accomplished Christian scholar. He was 
distinguished for great symmetry and beauty of character, for 
lofty ideals of human perfectibility, and for an unreserved conse- 
cration of himself to the moral regeneration of society. He has 
impressed his pure and noble character upon his generation, and 
left a record more enduring than that of marble in the affection of 
those for whom he toiled. 

Do you remember our classmate Lathrop ? He was poor and 
had to struggle hard for his education. He prepared his own 
meals, and occasionally made buckwheat cakes. He studied 
mathematics under Captain Jackson. At a recitation, one 
morning, on Osculating Curves : " Well, Lathrop," said Jackson, 
with his legs dangling over the arm of his chair, " how are the 
buckwheats?" "First-rate," was the reply. "And how is the 



13 

lesson? Do you understand osculating curves?" "The theoretical 
part, professor, I have not mastered," said Lathrop ; "but, if you 
will give me a girl with sweet, pretty lips, I will show you my 
proficiency in the application of the theory ! " 

Lathrop studied law, came to ISTew York to pass his examina- 
tion, was admitted to the bar, and, on his return home, so 
overpowering was his joy in winning the goal of his ambition, 
he lost all control over himself, and died at Albany in the wildest 
delirium. 

Lincoln B. Knowlton was an odd character. He was regarded 
by some as a great genius. He had the reputation of getting his 
lessons without study — would frequent students' rooms during 
study -hours, and boast of his intuitive superiority to the plodding,, 
painstaking drudgery to which his classmates were subjected. It 
was said, however, that he passed the midnight hours in hard and 
patient study. In personal appearance he was careless, dressed 
shabbily, and took pride in it. 

He liked to amuse himself and others in various ways, and did 
queer things. He was annoyed, as we all were, with the cimex 
lectularius, and how to keep the pest out of our beds was a serious 
problem. Knowlton hit upon the following scheme : He laid the 
mattress on the floor, and put a wall of coal-ashes around it ; them 
between the bed and the ashes, a circle of molasses was drawn. He 
reasoned that, if the vermin scaled the ash-entrenchment, he 
could not get through the molasses. But, in this he failed, and 
the failure has ever since been a college conundrum. The only 
solution ever proposed was that the varmint ran up the walls, over 
the ceiling, and came down like a vulture to do his bloody work. 

Knowlton studied law and settled in the West. Farnham told 
me that, on his way to the Pacific Coast, he saw Knowlton 
presiding as a police justice in a log-house in Illinois, and that 
he looked just as he did at recitation, or sitting on a college fence. 
He died in 1854. 

Judge Hamilton W. Bobinson died after a year's illness, April 
7, 1879. I attended his funeral. A large number of his legal 



14 

acquaintances were present. Rev. Dr. John Hall officiated, and 
delivered an appropriate address to the members of the bar on 
their duties to themselves and society, urging the importance of 
personal religious consecration of themselves to the Great Judge 
of all. He spoke in kindly terms of the deceased, and of his 
confidence in his Christian character. 

He was early associated in business with John "Van Buren. I 
entered their office as a law student, and continued till I was 
admitted to the bar, in 1844. Robinson was profoundly read in 
the law, and used to prepare the cases, while Van Buren did the 
talking in court. 

I also attended the funeral of John McClelland, M. D., one of 
the distinguished physicians of New York ; and also that of the 
Horn D. R. Floyd Jones, the successful politician, and at one time 
Lieutenant-Governor of this State. McClelland died April 12, 
1876, and Jones, January 9, 1871. 

The practical business man of the Class while a student, was 
A. P. Cumings, who supported himself in college by getting sub- 
scriptions to the New York Observer and other publications, in his 
vacation excursions in the country on horseback. After gradua- 
ting, and studying theology at Princeton, he was taken into the 
Observer firm as a partner, where he remained for life, contributing 
his financial skill in establishing one of the most influential and 
useful religious papers in the country. He was the oldest man in 
his Class, and was on the most intimate terms with Dr. Nott, who 
had great confidence in his wisdom and integrity. He was bom 
in Dover, Dutchess County, N. Y., July 4, 1803; graduated from 
Princeton College in 1835 ; was licensed by the Presbytery of 
New Brunswick, October 21, 1835, and was Editor of the New 
York Observer from 1836 to 1871. While traveling in Europe in 
1870-71, he was attacked by paralysis at Nice, France, and died 
within a few days, May 13, 1871, and was buried in that city. 

Mr. Cumings was very active in Christian and benevolent 
work in New York, was a prominent director of the American 
Bible Society, and served for many years on some of its im- 



15 

portant committees. He was a friend of education, and of every 
good cause for the improvement and happiness of man. 

A loving friend writes : " The circumstances of his death and 
burial were in keeping with his humble, retiring life. In an upper 
chamber of a hotel, at the hour of midnight, attended only by 
his wife and a young friend, with two Italian men, the end came 
to him. Nor was his progress to the grave, far from kindred and 
home, marked by any funeral pageant. But in the pleasant 
British Cemetery of " Caucada," on a hill overlooking the Medi- 
terranean — amid a flora of unrivalled beauty and surrounded by 
olive groves, there the American traveler, visiting that lovely 
region for health or pleasure, may find a stone inscribed, " Abijah 
P. Cumings, of New York, IT. S. A, aged 68." 

" The tears of children (not his own) whom he has educated — 
of the widows and orphans he has befriended — of the strangers he 
has "taken in" — of the "sick and in prison" he has comforted — ■ 
of the servants of his own household, will not fall upon that 
grave. But the remembrance of such a man will live in a multi- 
tude of hearts." 



One of the ablest and most useful men of the Class was Rev. 
James M. McDonald, D. D. He was born in Limerick, Maine, 
May 22, 1812. He pursued his theological studies at Yale 
College. In 1835 he was settled pastor of the Congregational 
Church in Worthington, Conn., and in 1837, of the Church in 
New London — was called to the Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, 
L. I., in 1811 ; and in 1850, to the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian 
Church of New York; and two years later, to the Presbyterian 
Church in Princeton, N. J., where, for more than twenty years, he 
continued to preach the gospel with great success. 

He was a voluminous writer. The following are the titles of 
some of his publications : " Credulity, as illustrated by successful 
impostures in Science, Superstition and Fanaticism ; " " Key to the 
Book of Revelation ; " " History of the Presbyterian Church of 
Jamaica;" "My Father's House, or the Heaven of the Bible;" 
" The Book of Ecclesiastes Explained ; " and " The Life of St. 



16 

John." He was a frequent contributor to the Princeton Review 
and the Bibliotheca Sacra. 

He was a man of fine personal appearance, of genial and 
attractive manners, of large and varied learning in his profession. 
He was prudent in speech, wise in counsel, positive in his convic- 
tions, and earnest in his advocacy of the truths of religion. He 
died, sincerely lamented, April 19, 1876. 

J. T. Farnham, although not a graduate, was a member of our 
Class. The college afterward conferred a degree upon him. In 
some respects, he was a remarkable character. Tall, and of com- 
manding personal appearance, he was sure to attract attention. 
Eestless in spirit and fond of adventure, he cound not be confined 
to any ordinary pursuit, and at a very early day after leaving 
college, he set out on the perilous undertaking of making his way 
across the continent, an account of which he published under the 
title of "Travels in the Great Western Prairies." He afterwards 
published a sequel to the first, entitled "Life, Adventures and 
Travels in California." In his preface to the latter work, he says, 
"I wrote my 'Travels in the Great Western Prairies,' with little 
belief that they would excite any attention beyond the circle in 
which personal friendship would in some sense link the reader 
with the events narrated. I did not comprehend the extensive 
interest felt in journeying over the wild and barren realms of 
uncultivated nature. I did not suppose that the dim outline 
which words could give of the snow-clad peak, the desert-vale, 
and the trials and dangers which crowd about the pilgrim on the 
western deserts and mountains, could be made sufficiently distinct 
to convey even a satisfactory shadow of their sublime, fearful 
nature. But the very unexpected favor with which that work has 
been received, has led me to conclude that such matters, related as 
far as they may be at all, with fidelity, are valued as useful 
knowledge. Indeed, we may learn much from the pulseless soli- 
tudes — from the desert untrodden by the foot of living thing — 
from the frozen world of mountains, whose chasms and cliffs 
never echoed to aught but the thunder tempests girding their 
frozen peaks — from old nature, piled, rocky, bladeless, toneless — if 



17 

we will allow its lessons of awe to reach the mind and impress it 
with the fresh and holy images which they were made to inspire." 
In his first work, "I left," he says, "my readers off the mouth of 
Columbia River, in sight of the green coast of Oregon. Lower 
Oregon ! A verdant belt of wild loveliness ! A ■ great pack of 
flowering shrubs, of forest pines, and clear streams! The old, 
unchanged home of the Indian ; where he has hunted the moose 
and deer, drawn the trout from the lake, and danced, sung, loved, 
and warred away a thousand generations." 

I have been unable to obtain any information in regard to the 
time or circumstances of his death. His widow was, for some 
time, Matron of the prison at Sing Sing, and did much for the 
moral improvement of the prisoners. In 1844, I sent her a set of 
wall maps for the benefit of the convicts. In acknowledging 
their receipt, she wrote: "They are of the greatest service in the 
course of instruction we are now pursuing. Half an hour each 
morning is spent in a lesson on the early history and discovery of 
this Continent, .and these maps add incalculably to the interest 
which dull minds feel in the mere narration. Every act of 
liberality like this lightens our labors, and inspires hope and self- 
respect in the unfortunate beings whom we are, in our humble 
way, seeking to make better and happier. Our success, thus far, 
has been commensurate with our highest hopes." 

Mrs. Farnham was the author of several volumes. 

Eliphalet Cramer completed his academic studies preparatory 
for college at the Berkshire Gymnasium in 1829. It was at the 
gymnasium that I first met him. At that time he was but 
fifteen years of age. Everybody liked "Lif" Cramer, as he was 
familiarly called. He had a kind heart and a kind word for 
everybody. My intercourse with him was intimate. For , four 
years, we were constant companions. We were members of the 
same College societies — the Philomathian, the Kappa Alpha, and 
the Phi Beta Kappa, The title of his paper, at the graduating 
exercises, was "National Degeneracy." 

I don't remember of having met him after we parted on Com- 
mencement day. 



18 

From an obituary sketch which has been furnished by his 
daughter, "I have gained the following particulars: He was the 
eldest son of Hon. John Cramer, a distinguished citizen of Water- 
ford, 1ST. Y. ; was born, June 18, 1813 ; studied law and was admit- 
ted to the bar ; removed in 1837 to Milwaukee, Wis. ; engaged in 
mercantile pursuits, and was largely interested in real estate ; was 
one of the organizers and first President of the State Bank of 
Wisconsin ; was one of the earliest members of the Plymouth 
Church, a deacon and one of its most liberal supporters ; was a 
large contributor to the funds for establishing Beloit College and 
the Chicago Theological Seminary ; was proud of his adopted 
city and invested largely in its real estate ; was in active business 
until two years before his death ; amassed a large fortune, which 
was used for the benefit of society. He died, September 19, 1872, 
deeply lamented by all classes of society who had shared in his 
benefactions. He had contributed to the rapid and marvellous 
growth of his adopted city and had seen it a mere hamlet of a 
few pioneers and backwoodsmen, rise to the dignity and wealth of 
a large commercial city. During his long residence there of more 
than thirty years, he was honored with many evidences of respect 
from his fellow citizens by the offices of trust and responsibility 
committed to his keeping. 

His memory is lovingly enshrined in many hearts. 

The telegraph brought the sad news from Washington, April 8, 
1882, of the death of Thomas Allen. 

Allen was my life-long friend. As boys, we began our Aca- 
demic career together. Our fathers were farmers and lived in 
distant parts of the town ; so that in early childhood, we rarely 
met. His father was a leading citizen, and took a prominent part 
in public business. In this way, I early came to hear of Jonathan 
Allen, the father of our classmate. 

The Allen family was distinguished among the yeomanry of 
the town and State. The grandfather, the Eev. Thomas Allen, 
was the first settled minister of Pittsfield, and took an active part 
in the American Kevolution. He fired the first gun, on the Colo- 
nial side, at the battle of Bennington ; was instrumental in arousing 



the patriotism of the people in Western Massachusetts, and was 
among the foremost by speech and pen in achieving our national 
independence. After the war, he took an active part in politics. 
His pulpit was the arena for the examination of the great under- 
lying principles of Kepublican institutions. He espoused and 
warmly advocated the political doctrines of Thomas Jefferson. He 
hated the dogmas of the Federalists, as taught by John Adams 
and Alexander Hamilton. The party lines were sharp and de- 
cisive. Jefferson's opposition grew out of his hostility to Mr. 
Hamilton. They were rivals. Hamilton had devised the Fund- 
ing System, which was one of the great measures which distin- 
guished Washington's administration. The system of revenue 
adopted under General Washington was also the work of this 
distinguished financier ; and so perfect was it found to be in prac- 
tice amid all the changes and violence of party, and under the 
administration of those who were originally opposed to its adop- 
tion, that they severally fotmd it necessary when placed at the head 
of the Government, to continue the system which he had devised. 
Even Mr. Jefferson himself, during the eight years that he held 
the office of chief magistrate, never ventured to adopt a new sys- 
tem of finance ; but adhered in all its essential particulars to that 
devised by, Hamilton. 

" The fighting parson " hated Federalism in politics as much as 
he did Armenianism in religion. His church was split into fac- 
tions, which darkened the close of a long and useful life. He was 
generous, warm-hearted and sympathetic ; he was the friend of the 
poor and sorrowing. His funeral discourses, many of which were 
published, were remarkably tender and affectionate — a literature 
which has almost entirely passed away. On marriage and festive 
occasions, he was the life of the company. All could approach 
and share in his genial nature. But, mention the subject of pol- 
itics, during a Presidential campaign, and his whole nature was in a 
blaze. In the political struggles of our own times, we have hardly 
anything to match it. But, in it all, he was thoroughly honest 
and disinterested. 

I present the foregoing historical data as a background to the 
portrait I would draw of our democratic classmate. He was a 



20 

worthy scion of the old Berkshire parson. Honest, but never 
offensive, in the maintainance and declaration of his opinions, he 
rarely excited antagonisms such as we have noticed in respect to 
his grandfather. He was born in Pittsfield, August 29, 1813. 
Passing his childhood and youth on his father's farm, and attend- 
ing the village academy and the Berkshire Gymnasium under 
that accomplished teacher, Prof. Chester Dewey, he fitted himself 
for and entered college in 1830. Neither in the gymnasium nor 
the college did he attain the highest rank for scholarship. His 
standing was respectable. He was popular with the faculty and 
the students. His preferences in study were natural history rather 
than mathematics or the ancient classics. He excelled in English 
composition. In manners he was dignified and genial, was kind 
and true in his friendships. He was an ai'dent lover of nature — ■ 
was fond of rural sports. His rod and his gun were his constant 
companions during vacation. He loved to throw the fly to 
the speckled trout, and chase the fox <jver hill and valley. He 
was a close observer of the peculiarities and habits of wild 
animals. He studied birds, and used to dissect them for instruc- 
tion and amusement. Had he been under the tuition of Audubon, 
he would have ranked high as an ornithologist. He had an eye for 
form and color, and would have shone as an artist. His tempera- 
ment was delicate and in sympathy with the aesthetic and beautiful 
rather than the abstract in speculative philosophy. We boys 
knew each other — our tastes, our trials, our aspirations. "We 
dreamed and speculated about the future. We built air castles 
and filled them with precious treasures. What young man don't 
do this? 

Before leaving college, he chose the law for his profession. 
With twenty-five dollars, the only patrimony his father could 
give him, he set out for New York, in the Fall of 1832, and 
entered upon the study of law. From that city he wrote me in 
the Spring of 1833. A few extracts from his letter I will give, 
to show the character of the young man who had not reached his 
twentieth year. 

In speaking of the choice of a profession, he says: "I have 
long been of opinion it is best for a man to follow nature. He 



21 

should examine himself, and ask where he can shine with the most 
honor and profit. Can he command an army or a fleet? Has he 
the art of a Courtier? Has he those qualities of mind, manner 
and speech which will make him shine at the bar? Or, has 
nature fitted him for the clerical or medical profession? Once 
settled, he should choose without delay. Let everything be 
sacrificed, except, of course, those finer qualities of the heart 
without which man is a brute, and no profession should, or does, 
exclude their cultivation. 

" Now, then, if you are after money, there is none more profit- 
able on that point than the law. If honor, lay hold of the law. If 
political eminence, lay hold of the law. As a science, none goes 
beyond it in dignity or extent. As a study, you will find channels 
of amusement and instruction that extend into every department 
of life. 

" Now, then, for a location. If you mean to depend upon the 
pure practice of the profession you choose, of all places in this 
country this is the one, the city of New York. I found when I 
came here, with all my college pedantry and imaginary knowledge 
I just knew nothing at all. Our college life put trammels upon 
us which it is difficult to throw off. Those very trammels are on 
you now. You are dreaming, refining, fearful, apprehensive, 
undecided ; but such a man will find no sympathy with the world. 
You must come out and take an active and decided part. Men 
of the world are all in action, contending with each other, face,, to 
face, for honor and independence. You must come out ; and, if 
you would do as other, and perhaps as the most successful are 
doing, you must hambug the people. The science of humbug is 
getting to be the most profitable of all sciences. We have been 
humbugged long enough. Let us take our turn and humbug, too. 

" I have had a sneaking notion of going "West ; and, if I 
should get a good offer, I may go yet. The chances for political 
eminence are greater there than anywhere else. 

" But the practice of the law there must be rather slim. Lands 
are so cheap that there is every chance for profitable speculation, 
inasmuch as they are increasing very fast in value. If you should 
go there, you might ultimately find yourself an extensive land- 



22 

owner, and, having grown np with the country, be revered as one 
of its patriarchs. You might be a Governor, a Judge, or a 
Congressman ! " 

Sagacious youth ! All this he realized in himself ! In the 
boy we see the promise which has been signally fulfilled in the 
man ! 

Mr. Allen went West and amassed a colossal fortune. Such 
success would have upset the mental equilibrium of many a man. 
But it did not serve to disturb his. By wise and judicious 
management he secured the object of his ambition, and it required 
all his thought and skill to keep and maintain it. His burdens, 
great as they must have been, seemed to rest lightly upon his 
shoulders. In conversation with him, no one would have thought 
that he had any cares. He was always calm and self-possessed. 
He put on no airs. In manners, he was courteous and affable, 
kind and thoughtful of others. His charities were large, but 
without ostentation. Among these was the founding of a pro- 
fessorship of Mining and Metallurgy in Washington University of 
St. Louis, and the building of a costly public library for his native 
town. He purchased his grandfather's estate in Pittsfield, and 
erected a costly residence for his family. Here he passed his 
summers in cultivating an extensive farm and rearing a choice 
breed of Jersey cattle. It was returning to the rural scenes and 
occupations of his boyhood. It was refreshing to drive with him 
over his well-cultivated acres, and witness the interest he took in 
all the details of his well-managed farm. Every cow's milk was 
weighed, night and morning, and a record of it made. The 
arrangements for butter-making were excellent. He took great 
pride in showing his friends what a busy man could provide in 
the way of relaxation and amusement. Allen lived like a prince, 
but without ostentation. He had his private palace-car, fitted up 
with every convenience for housekeeping, which he was privileged 
to order hitched to any train on any of the great railroad lines, and 
traverse the Continent at his pleasure — a contrast between this and 
the old stage-coach we used to travel in, in our college days, when, 
in the muddy season, he and I had to carry rails to pry it out of 
the mire ! 



23 

In contemplating such a career, we find mnch to admire. If 
measured by human standards, it is one of signal success. It meets 
the ideal of this age of materialism. With the multitudes, success 
in the accumulation of wealth is the only passport to greatness. 
The Goulds and the Vanderbilts are the heroes of this generation. 
Great intellectual abilities, great literary or scientific acquisitions, 
unattended by wealth, are insignificant trophies in the battle of 
life! 

A man is measured by his outward possessions rather than by 
his culture and moral wealth. But it is true of Allen that he 
always cultivated a love of the beautiful in nature and art. The 
accumulation of wealth did not deaden his aesthetic sensibilities or 
moral instincts. He was simple and temperate in his habits. The 
coarseness and vulgarity which are often associated with men of 
hastily accumulated fortunes were never seen in Allen. He was 
too great a man for that. He had lofty ideals of human greatness. 
He was familiar with the great names of antiquity. He worshipped 
the patriots, orators and statesmen of his own countiy. These had 
greater charms for him than the tinsel of wealth. He was a man 
of culture, and had an extensive knowledge of men and institutions. 

I need not do more than recite the steps in his successful 
career. That he was admitted to the bar in 1835 ; that, soon 
after, he took an interest in the politics of the clay ; that, in 
1837, he established the Madisonian, a political newspaper, in 
"Washington ; that he was, soon after, elected printer to the House, 
and afterward printer to the Senate ; that, in 1842, he went from 
Washington to St. Louis to reside ; that he there took an active 
part in connection with public improvements; that, in 1848, he 
prepared an address in favor of the construction of the St. Louis 
and Cincinnati Railway ; that he built the first railway west of the 
Mississippi ; that he was instrumental in securing a railroad to the 
Pacific ; that he was for many years a railway president ; that he 
projected and built over 1,000 miles of railroad ; that, in 1867, he 
bought the Iron Mountain Railroad and Cairo & F niton Railroad, 
and completed them in two years ; that he was a member of the 
Missouri Senate from 1850 to 1854 ; that, in 1880, he was elected 



24 

to the 47th Congress as a Democrat, and that, soon after, he sold 
his railway interests and retired from active business. 

These are some of the rounds in the ladder of his successful 
career. He had gained all that this world could afford of wealth, 
honor and position ; he had reared a large and interesting family ; 
he had secured the confidence and respect of a large circle of 
acquaintances ; he had nearly reached the limit of human life; he 
hoped to spend its evening in the enjoyment of his accumulated 
treasures ; to receive the congratulations of friends for many years 
to come ; to carry into execution cherished plans for the advance- 
ment of collegiate education ; to witness the deepening shadows of 
a slowly descending sun, and to sink at last, without pain and 
without regret, into the bosom of his loving mother — earth ! 

But, while standing in the council chamber of the Nation, with 
the possibdities of making an honorable reputation in parliamentary 
practice, the death-struggle, sharp and fierce, came suddenly upon 
him, and summoned him into another Presence and other 
occupations ! 

As I stood, the other day, by his newly-made grave, on which 
the floral offerings of affection were withering in the morning sun, 
emblems of all earthly objects, I felt that, after all, there remained 
something over which Death had no control — and that was the 
imperishable character of such a spirit as his ! That abides ! The 
flowers may fade ; the winds may sing their requiem and die 
away ; the carol of birds may be heard at noon and eventide ; but 
the night cometh when no song of thrush or robin is heard ! The 
green-leafy robe of June puts on its many-tinted autumnal colors, 
and all is changed. So with this mortal life of ours. It passes 
away as a shadow, but the spirit abides ! 

In conclusion, I wish to put on record this interesting testimony 
to his trust in Divine Providence. In his last illness, he said : "I 
know not how it is with other men, but I have been a man 
of prayer all my life. I have always, before important decisions, 
sought guidance from Grod." In the excruciating agony he 
suffered, toward the last, he had the most convincing evidence of 
God's presence and revelations of God to his soul, as he joyfully 
expressed it. His joy was full ! 



25 

The usual Congressional honors were paid to his memory by 
Mr. Dawes of the Senate and Mr. Cockrell of the House. Brief 
funeral services were held in Washington, at which there was a 
large attendance of Senators and Representatives. A Congressional 
Committee accompanied his remains to Pittsfield. Funeral services 
were held in the Congregational Church. The Eev. J. L. Jenkins 
officiated, preaching from the text, " Samuel died, and all the 
Israelites gathered together and lamented him, and they buried 
him in his house at Ramah." 

To relieve my paper of its sobriety, perhaps I should say, of its 
dullness, permit me to tell a college story, the points of which were 
given me by an eye-witness, Wells S. Hammond, of the Class of 
1833 ; also by Prof. Averill. 

Do you remember the Callithumpian Society ? It was a curious 
association. It operated at night. It visited the rooms of novices 
and weak-minded students, and spent the night in discussing all 
sorts of questions. One of its rules was that every member 
should speak two hours without stopping. In that way the hours 
of the night were spent and their host victimized. 

On one occasion, the consent of Rockwood, who was in the class 
below us, was obtained to hold their meeting at his room. 
Rockwood, understanding the character of his guests and the 
object of their meetings, supplied a very liberal quantity of beer 
for their entertainment, which he was wicked enough to drug with 
ipecac. On reaching the short hours of the morning, he informed 
his guests that it was time for refreshments ; and, going to his 
closet, took a bottle of beer and asked them to help themselves. 
They all cried out, "It isn't good, is it?" Well, on drawing the 
cork to his bottle, which he had not drugged, he said, " You can 
do as you please; I'm going to have soma" Then there was a 
general scramble for the bottles, and the beer was drunk in- 
complimentary toasts in honor of their liberal host. 

The debate was resumed. Soon a member quietly left the 
room, and then another, and another, till Rockwood and his 
friend Hammond, who had shared the good beer, were left alone. 
It was a quiet, beautiful night. The stars looked down from their 



26 

azure heights. The good people of the college and vicinity were 
soundly sleeping. There was naught to disturb the quiet of this 
peaceful night till these midnight debators went forth in all 
directions and poured out, in flowing streams, the most impassioned 
eloquence, not from their tongues, but from organs more deeply 
seated and more acutely sensitive to the ravishing power of 
stimulants. 

After enjoying the fun of this midnight concert, the wicked 
Kockwood and his friend returned to their rooms and slept out the 
balance of the night. There were no Callithumpians at the next 
morning prayers. They were even absent from class-room duties. 
Where are they ? it was asked. The secret leaked out. Every- 
body soon knew it. The professors were delighted. The students 
said it was a good joke. In fact, everybody was pleased except 
the Callithumpians, who had taken more stock than they could 
carry, and were obliged to visit their parental abodes for the 
invigorating influences of diet and rest. 

When we entered Union College, in 1830, Dr. Nott was in the 
zenith of his popularity, and was regarded by many as the greatest 
of college presidents. The largest classes were graduated from 
this institution. Many came from other colleges to pass their 
senior year and receive the instruction of Dr. Nott in Kame's 
Elements of Criticism. The government of the college was 
administered by him. No case of discipline was entrusted to the 
professors. That he might exercise constant supervision over the 
young, he took up his residence at the college. His government 
was parental. By kindness, he was able to guide the most way- 
ward and refractory. Such was the power of his appeals, the most 
hardened and erring would relent and listen to the voice of 
wisdom. Many a promising young man was thus saved to his 
family and society. There is no written record, but here is to be 
found the great moral value of the life and services of Dr. Nott, — 
he saved young man. Who of his pupils does not remember his 
eloquent appeals in behalf of temperance and morality and of 
immediate consecration to Christ? In seasons of great religious 
excitement, which frequently visited the college, the scoffing and 



27 

profane were silenced, and induced, in many cases, to enter upon 
the Christian life. 

Dr. Nott was the father of the Common School system of 
education in this State. He saw that colleges could not flourish 
without the general education of the people — that common schools 
would feed the academies, and the academies the colleges — that 
they were essential parts in a system of universal education, in 
which every man, woman and child had an interest. While he 
was seeking from the Legislature an endowment for his college, he 
introduced, at the same time, a bill for the appropriation of the 
sales of the public lands for the support of common schools. Both 
bills met with bitter opposition ; but, by judicious management on 
the part of Dr. Nott, they both passed and received the signature 
of the Governor, Morgan Lewis. The Doctor was generous enough 
to have all the colleges of the State share in the college appropria- 
tion. The sum asked for Union College was only $45,000, and 
this was to be raised by the license of lotteries. The grant was 
increased to $80,000. After completing the stone college building 
with moneys thus appropriated, it was found that the college site 
in the heart of the city was undesirable ; and Dr. Nott, on his own 
responsibility, purchased some three hundred acres of land on the 
outskirts of the town and erected the college edifices now in use. 
This was in 1812. Two years later, the Legislature passed an act 
for the further endowment of the college, which put it upon a firm 
financial basis. What is very remarkable in this negotiation of all 
the collegiate interests of the State, which were left, by consent of 
Columbia College, in the hands of Dr. Nott is, that that institution 
came into possession of its great wealth through the good manage- 
ment of the Doctor. I have no space for this interesting history, 
.and must pass it. By foi-ecast and wisdom in the management of 
these great educational interests, the memory of Dr. Nott ought to 
be kept green in all time to come by the people of this State. 

While Dr. Nott was not a man of profound learning, he was 
an orator of commanding eloquence. It was not so much the 
matter of his discourse as the manner in which he said it. There 
was a freshness and sparkle in his style which captivated his 
hearers. Although his blade was double-edged and trenchant, he 



28 

could wreath it with flowers and play with his antagonist ; or, if 
necessary, he could send it crashing through helmet and cuirass. 

The oration which gave Dr. Nott a national reputation was 
his eulogy on the death of Alexander Hamilton, delivered at 
Albany in 1804. Hamilton was the idol of the American people. 
He had been of great patriotic service in securing our national 
independence. He was Washington's right-hand man, the gallant 
officer, the distinguished patriot, the great financier. He had fallen 
in an ignoble duel with Aaron Burr. The nation was in tears, as it 
was, last year, by the tragic death of Garfield. Funeral orations 
were pronounced from forum and pulpit, in all the leading cities of 
the land. It was a great theme. An immense audience of the 
citizens of Albany, without regard to party, assembled to hear the 
great clergyman. Dr. Nott was in sympathy with the occasion. 
He was a warm personal friend of Hamilton and admired his 
genius. From a few hastily prepared notes to guide his thoughts, 
he poured forth one of the most masterly orations of his life. 
The effect was electric. The audience was convulsed. Indigna- 
tion and sorrow alternated — sorrow for the nation's loss, and 
indignation toward the assassin. The system of duelling was 
denounced, the value of human life exhalted. A friend of mine 
was present, and such, said he, was the effect upon him, that he 
hardly knew whether he was in the flesh or out. 

The Doctor, afterward, wrote out his oration for the press. It 
was a mistake. It is the skeleton, without the animating pres- 
ence of the orator. The Doctor, it is said, afterward regretted its 
publication. 

Dr. Nott could never call a student by name ; but yet he 
knew every man by his walk • and one man he knew by his run. 
Lathrop had been down to the hotel to see some friends, and re- 
turning late in the evening and passing by the Doctor's door, was 
surprized by the Doctor's suddenly coming down the steps. Lath- 
rop started upon a run and the Doctor set out in pursuit. Turn- 
ing round the corner by the south colonnade, they had it " nip and 
tuck." Down the walk to the garden they went at a break- 
neck pace. Lathrop was muscular and long-winded ; but by the 
dexterous use of his longer legs, the doctor was evidently 



29 

gaining" upon his competitor, when Lathrop put into the garden, 
and running among the evergreens, escaped. The next morning, 
Lathrop was summoned to the Doctor's study. " "Well, my son," 
said the Doctor, " we had a nice race, last night." "Yes," said 
Lathrop, " I didn't know, Doctor, there was so much speed in the 
old horse ! " An explanation followed, and Lathrop was advised 
never to run without cause. 

Many instances of Dr. Nott's power over masses of excited 
men might be given. One must suffice. Soon after our leaving 
college, a serious difficulty sprung up between the college students 
and the roughs living in the suburbs of the city. Some of the 
boys had been roughly handled. The spirit of retaliation was 
aroused ; and what, at first, was but a spark, soon kindled into a 
flame. War was declared. The students taking advantage of the 
absence of Dr. ISTo^t, armed themselves with guns r clubs and pis- 
tols, and formed themselves into line in front of the college build- 
ings in readiness to march on their bloody fray. The professors 
expostulating in vain, finally ordered them to their rooms. This 
only kindled their ire and stimulated their courage. Disperse 
they would not, fight they would. Becoming turbulent and in- 
sulting to the college authorities, they set out upon their perilous 
march to avenge their insulted honor. Dr. Nott, who was in Al- 
bany, had been notified of the condition of things, and taking the 
first train, arrived in- time to meet the belligerents on their way to 
the battlefield. Expressing no surprise, he quietly asked what was 
up ? We are going to fight the " niggers," said the captain ; they 
have insulted us, and we'll stand it no longer. Entering at once 
into sympathy with their plan, he told them they were right ; that 
it would be cowardly and degrading to submit to such repeated 
instances of provocation ; but at the same time informed them that 
there was policy in war, that he would espouse their cause, pro- 
vided they would listen to his advice. Yielding a ready com- 
pliance, they asked him to take the matter into his own hands. 
With ten of your party, I can whip an army of roughs. " Do it, 
do it," was the ready reply. 

Selecting the leading spirits of the party and giving their arms 
to the other boys, he said "take these weapons back to college and 



30 

go to your studies." Doing as they were bidden, they marched 
back, while the Doctor taking command of his little unarmed band 
went to the spot where were gathered the opposing host ready for 
the fray. In confronting them, the Doctor made one of his charac- 
teristic speeches, calling attention to the smallness of his party, 
that they had not come to do them harm, that it was a misfortune 
that any unkind feeling should exist between them and his boys, 
that it was a mistaken idea if they thought the college boys would 
fight the citizens of Schenectady — they would do no such thing. 
He then drew a graphic picture of their importance to society, that 
the foundations of the business world rest on their shoulders. 
He pointed out the folly of neighborhood quarrels, the value of 
peace and good order, ridiculed the idea of throwing mud and 
brickbats. So completely did he obtain the mastery over them, 
they set up a shout of applause and declared that they were will- 
ing to live in peace. Congratulating them on their good resolu- 
tions, the Doctor and his party retired — the chasm was bridged — 
a bloodless victory won. 

Dr. Nott was profoundly skilled in diplomacy. He was a 
born ruler of men. For years the State Legislature was under his 
control. I don't know that he ever abused this power, unless it 
was in the instance I am about to relate. He was a trainer of 
politicians. William H. Seward, John C. Spencer and many 
others were instructed by the Doctor in statescraft. He was 
always consulted in cases of political emergency. When the 
Trustees of Union College tried to get a little official power, for 
the Doctor had it all, for the sake of keeping it he circumvented 
the Trustees by introducing a bill asking the Legislature to con- 
tinue to the Trustees all the power they ever had. It was a 
lengthy document and most skillfully drawn up. It was mostly 
devoted to the importance of opening a street in the suburbs of 
Schenectady, and toward its close, the jewelled sentence that the 
Trustees of Union College have the same power they always had 
had (which was none at all), was hidden in the voluminous mass. 
The members of the Assembly had tired of the reading and were 
willing that the street and fifty others if desired, should be opened, 
and so passed the bill, and the little Trustee-clause with it. 



31 

Dr. Nott, in one of his lectures on Kame's Elements of Criti- 
cism, said to us, "Young gentlemen, never yield to anger. When 
a boy, I learned the folly of that weakness. I was trying to drive 
some unruly cattle, and became greatly enraged and vented my 
wrath in very unbecoming language. On looking around, I saw 
some of my young lady acquaintances who were enjoying the fun 
at my expense. I was mortified, and vowed that I would never 
make a fool of myself again. It will not do in any department 
of professional life to lose your temper ; for by so doing, you put 
a weapon into the hands of your adversary, and your power is 
gone." 

As a presiding officer over popular assemblies, Dr. Nott had 
no superior. Dignified in person, and courteous in manner, he won 
the admiration of all. His sympathies were always with, the 
unfortunate. He leaned to the side of mercy. In the famous trial 
of Hooper Cumming, before the Presbytery of Alban}^, in 1817, 
for intemperance and plagiarism in having preached one of Dr. 
Channing's sermons, Dr. Nott was Moderator. But, nothwithstand- 
ing the provocation he had received from Mr. Cumming, who had 
preached two of the Doctor's sermons in Schenectady, the Doctor 
being present, he did what he could at the trial to diminish the 
prejudice against the accused and save the eloquent preacher. Dr. 
Nott was interested in several mechanical enterprises, invented a 
stove for the burning of anthracite coal, also a new form of steam 
boiler for the propelling of boats. But in the latter, he met with 
no very great success. In his management of young men, there 
was this peculiarity in his instructions. He would preserve every 
man's individuality. Each thought and acted for himself, so 
that on all public occasions there was a charming variety of in- 
dividuality in their orations. 

The following item was obtained from a little book written by 
a lady: "On his seventy-sixth birthday, June 25, 1819,' a com- 
mittee of the senior class waited on him, requesting permission to 
have a general college celebration of his birthday. At this, he 
seemed much surprised, and asked, "How in the world did you 
learn that? " " Beally, I did not know it myself; but if it be so, 
boys, that I am another year older, and you wish to celebrate it, 



32 

you must do it in the way I am going to — work with all your 
might." But, said they, "we would like to illuminate the col- 
lege." " Illuminate the college ! " said he, " why, what an idea ! 
such a thing was never done." "Why, yes," said the students, 
" the first year you came here it was illuminated." " Not hardly," 
said the Doctor, " for I remember rightly, we had no college to 
illuminate." Btit, said they, "they hung the lamps in the trees^ 
which meant the same thing." So the dialogue went on, and at 
last terminated by the Doctor's consenting to let the senior class 
come to his house in the evening, for an informal levee, specifying 
that they should all go home precisely at 10 o'clock. Many pres- 
ents were sent in. The professors and their ladies, the tutors and 
other officers of the college were present at the party. The Doc- 
tor was in fine spirits, entertaining the groups who thronged about 
him with vivid delineations of the master spirits of the last gen- 
eration, with most of whom he was intimate. 

Just before the company dispersed, the venerable Doctor re- 
ferred in a touching manner to the separation that would soon take 
place between the teachers and the class before him, and besought 
them to live in constant reference to the judgment day, to prepare 
for which all other days are given. And thus in behalf of all 
present, offered an effecting and solemn prayer to the Father of all 
mercies. 

The most notable event in Dr. Nott's connection with the col- 
lege was the fiftieth anniversary of his presidency, which was 
celebrated with great interest by the Alumni, July 25, 1854. 
Many of Union's most distinguished sons took part in the festival. 
An Historical Address was delivered by Win, W. Campbell ; 
then, a discourse of great power by Francis Wayland, President 
of Brown University, on " The Edxication demanded by the 
people of the United States ; " then followed an address of great 
tenderness by Dr. Nott, in his best maimer. It was replete with 
reminiscences of the past. 

" Surely," said he, " our lives have fallen in pleasant places, 
we have a goodly heritage." "But where are the actors in these 
scenes of glory? — the men who achieved these semi-centennial 
triumphs ? — especially those of the Empire State ? — where are the 



33 

statesmen ? — where is Jay, and Clinton and Hamilton — statesmen 
of imperishable memor}'- ? " 

" Where are the jurists ? — where is the stern and incorruptible 
Spencer, the erudite, guileless Kent, and the eloquent and per- 
suasive Van Ness ? " 

" Where are the inventors and the patrons of inventors ? — 
where is the liberal and enlightened Livingston? — the ingenious 
and successful Fulton? — and above all, where is the unhonored 
and forgotten Fitch, the real and unrivalled author of steam- 
navigation ? " 

" Where are the men that presided over this institution in its 
early infancy? — where is the devout and impassioned Smith? — 
the acute and polemic Edwards ? — and where the elegant and 
accomplished Maxey ? " 

" Where the teachers that constituted its faculty ? — where is 
the profound Van Der Huval ? — the beloved Taylor ? — the devoted 
Yates ? — the learned Allen, and the venerated Davis ? " 

" Where ai*e the men that constituted its Board of Trustees? 
— where is Yan Rensselaer, and Banyar and Henry, and Outhout 
and Yates and Duane ? and especially where is Romeyn and Coe 
and Blatchford ? — venerable names. Where ? Gone — all gone ; 
and I stand here alone to-day among you, beloved pupils, the last 
remaining relic of a former age, as the leafless, storm-stricken forest 
tree stands amid trees of younger growth, still spreading around 
their branches, beating the storm and rejoicing in their strength." 

Venerable old man ! " The leafless forest tree " has fallen ; 
its ashes have mingled with the dust of other centuries ; but the 
memory of its departed glory remains, a joy and benediction 
forever. 

The standard of teaching in the college was low. With few 
exceptions, the professors were easy and inefficient. All the life 
was in two of the younger men — Chester Averill and Isaac W. 
Jackson. Averill was a man of uncommon promise. He was 
tall and beautiful in person, clear and comprehensive in intellect, 
diligent and untiring in study, lofty and aspiring in his ideals of 
perfected manhood. In 1836, in the midst of his scholarly career, 
he was cut off and consigned to an early grave. 



34 

Prof. Jackson died in 1877. He was a man of rare mental 
abilities, of large mathematical culture, of broad and comprehen- 
sive views, of quick and delicate sensibilities, and of noble and 
generous impulses. 

In this connection, I should not omit the name of Bishop 
Alonzo Potter, who had joined the college faculty during our last 
year and wished to reform the lax discipline of class-instruction ; 
but did little before our graduation. The task of moving the 
inert mass was too herculean for a man of even his acknowledged 
power and reputation. 

Dr. JSTott did not rely so much upon book-learning as upon the 
knowledge of human nature. He cared little for libraries and 
cabinets of natural history ; with him, book-worms and pedants 
were at a discount. He would have every man rely upon his 
genius and not consume his strength with the wasting midnight 
oil. He liked readiness and not a plodding scholarship. Here, 
there was no encouragement of painstaking fidelity to scholastic 
duties. The boys were left to follow their own inclinations, and 
these in the average student are not of a very elevated character. 

The Doctor said in class, one day, that he was not afraid to 
meet a man in argument who had read all the books of a large 
library, but he did fear him who had read but one. He advised 
us to confine our reading during senior year to Shakespeare and 
the Bible. 

In our class of seventy-five graduates (there were then eighty 
in attendance), twenty-seven became lawyers, twenty-three clergy- 
men, six physicians, four teachers, the rest farmers and business 
men. For intelligence, usefulness and success in life, it will chal- 
lenge comparison with any class which has left the college. And, 
I think it may be said with truth, that the graduates of Union 
College will bear favorable comparison with those of any of the 
leading institutions in the country. The triennial catalogue pre- 
sents an array of distinguished names in every department of 
human learning. I have selected a few ; among lawyers, John 
Savage, Egbert Bensen, Francis Van Vecten, John C. Spencer, 
Eobert J. Breckenridge, William H. Seward, William Kent, 
Richard M. Blachford, Ira Harris, John A. Lott and Alexander W. 



35 

Bradford. Among clergymen, are Thomas C. Brownell, Thomas 
McCauley, Thomas T. De Witt, Alonzo Potter, George W. Doane, 
Horatio Potter, Leonard Woods and Ichabod S. Spencer. Among 
teachers and college presidents, are found T. Romeyn Beck, 
Francis Wayland, Taylor Lewis, Stephen Alexander, Henry P. 
Tappan, John W. Eaymond, Silas Totten, John B. Beck, Amos 
Dean, Lawren P. Hickok, Lewis C. Beck, George W. Eaton, 
Chester Averill and I. W. Jackson. Many others might be named. 

Do you remember how inexpensive our education was? The 
whole expense of mine was $342.61, and I lived like a prince ! 
The best of board for $1 to $1.50 per week. The greatest expense 
was for tuition, $18.50 per term ; for repairs and damage, 62£ 
cents. The whole annual expense for tuition was $57.37-! ! 
Compare this with the present scale of prices for college tuition. 
But money had a greater value in those early days of the Repub- 
lic ; and of course, had a greater purchasing power. The mines 
of California had not been discovered ! 

Time has wrought many changes. The Bepublic has laid 
aside its swaddling clothes and reached a vigorous manhood. 
We have witnessed its unfolding greatness. We have joined the 
long procession in its triumphant march. 

Fifty years have passed ! What changes have been wrought 
in human society ! No fifty years in the world's history have 
witnessed such mighty revolutions ! Turn your thoughts upon 
our country. The population of the United States in 1835 was 
14,786,000. In 1880, it was 50,155,783. In 1832, there were 24 
States; in 1882, there are 38 States and 7 territories. In 1830, 
there were only 23 miles of railway ; in 1882, there are more than 
107,000 miles! The first railroad in the United States was at 
Quincy, Mass., running from the quarries to the Neponset river by 
horse power. The first railway in the country on which steam 
power was used was a short line built in 1827 by the Delaware 
and Hudson Coal Company, from their mines to Honesdale, Pa. 
This road was .used for traffic and not for passenger trains. In 
1829, Horatio Allen, of the Novelty Works, New York, brought 
irom England the first locomotives, one of which was used on the 



36 

Delaware and Hudson railroad, but was taken off because it was 
too heavy for the rails. This engine was built by George Stephen- 
son, the English engineer, who was not the originator of the 
railway, nor the inventor of the locomotive. The first railroad, of 
which I can find any account, was the Darlington road, built in 
1818 by Mr. Pearce, which run from the river Tees to the collier- 
ies, west of it After a hard struggle, an act of Parliament was 
obtained for it. The road at first was only 30 miles long ; it was 
afterwards extended 130 miles, but was not open for use till 
September, 1825. 

It is said that the first American locomotive was built by Peter 
Cooper, in 1830, called " Tom Thumb," which was placed on the 
Baltimore and Ohio railroad ; but was too small to be of any 
practical service. The object of its construction was to demon- 
strate the practicability of turning short curves. But, in the same 
year, 1830, a locomotive was made at the West Point Foundry for 
the South Carolina road, called the " Phcenix ; " a second, was 
called the " West Point." In the spring of 1831, the third one built 
for the Mohawk and Hudson railroad from Albany to Schenectady, 
was called the "De Witt Clinton." 

While we were in college, the Mohawk and Hudson Eailway 
was built ; and, in our afternoon excursions, we used to visit the 
grounds and witness the progress of the work. This railway was 
begun in August, 1830, and finished in September, 1831. Sur- 
veys were first made by Mr. Fleming in 1829, who was succeeded 
by Mr. Jarvis in 1830. Passengers were taken upon this road in 
coaches drawn by horses and by the locomotive engines, the 
" DeWitt Clinton," to which reference has just been made, and the 
" Robert Fulton," an English engine. The coaches were built like 
the common post coaches of that day, and would carry inside and 
out about twenty passengers, each. We were among the very first 
to make a trip to Albany and rode on the outside ; the cars being 
drawn by horses. These engines as compared with the mammoth 
locomotives which now run over the same road, were mere philo- 
sophical toys. The "De Witt Clinton" was only about eleven and 
a half feet in length, and mounted on iron wheels of four feet 
eight inches diameter. There were two cylinders, one on each 



37 

side of the engine, of five inches and a half diameter and 
sixteen inches stroke. The power of the engine was about ten 
horses. As it stood on the rails it could he easily moved by a 
single hand. Its weight was 6,758£ pounds. The "Eobert Ful- 
ton" weighed 12,742 pounds, of which 8,745 pounds rested on one 
pair of wheels. The former was as long as that of the "De Witt 
Clinton," and was mounted on wooden wheels, strongly bound with 
iron. Mr. Stephenson said of it : " As to the power of this engine, 
it would take twenty tons without difficulty ; but with twelve, it will 
be much better. The small inclination of one foot in two hundred 
and twenty -five, will affect the motion of the engine very little." 
These were clays of small things ! It was impossible to draw a 
train of cars with this engine up the slight grade at Schenectady. 
A stationary engine did that work, which with the one at Albany 
ate up the profits of the road 

The comparative merits of English and American locomotives 
may be seen in the following reference. On the railroad between 
Alexandria and Suez, there were four locomotives in 1858, two of 
which were English and two American, made at Taunton, Mass. 
The American engineer told the Pasha that instead of being weak, 
as the English had said, he would haul as many loaded cars as would 
reach from one end of the road to the other. The Pasha, to try it, 
had all the cars he had, seventy-five of them, heavily loaded and 
his own car hitched behind. The American locomotives hauled the 
whole of them two hundred miles to Suez in twelve hours, stopping 
for fuel and water. This done, the Pasha cried, " Grod is great — 
a Yankee is very near perfection." After that, the Pasha used the 
Taunton engines altogether. 

The first railway built in Spain was between Barcelona and 
Mataro, and it was opened in 1848. Now, Spain has 4,841 
miles of railway, 1,310 in course of construction, and 1,008 miles 
authorized. 

At the present time, the United States has two or three thou- 
sand miles more railway than all the countries of Europe combined 
can show. 

The capital stock of all the railroads in the United States were, 
January 1, 1881, $2,553,734,117. All parts of the Union have 



38 

been linked together with iron bands ; the Atlantic and Pacific 
Oceans, the Ghilf of Mexico and the great Lakes of the North, 
have been indissolubly united. 

An enormous increase has been made to the territory of the 
United States. The acquisition of New Mexico, nearly all of 
Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and part of Colorado was due 
to the war with Mexico which ended in 1848. That portion 
of Arizona lying south of Grila river was bought of Mexico in 
1853 ; and the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, was the 
last addition to the territory of the Republic. 

The mining of coal, iron, lead and the precious metals has 
reached since our graduation, an unprecedented degree in the scale 
■of values. On this topic, I have only time to say, that it was 
estimated by the director of the Mint for the year ending June 30, 
1880, at $80,167,000 ; of which $33,522,182 was gold ; $40,005,- 
364 silver; $5,742,390 lead. Prior to the discovery of California, 
the total product of gold and silver was very small. But in 1848, 
the working of the California mines began, and from 1861 the 
quantity of precious metals has been constantly increasing. At 
present, the United States produces a larger quantity of those 
metals annually than any other country of the world. 

In this connection, I will call attention to one of our cereals — 
wheat. The wheat crop of the United States for 1880, was 153,- 
252, 795 bushels, which was valued at $190,546,365 ; more than 
twice the value of all the gold, silver and lead, for the same year, 
while the money value of the hay-crop of the United States is 
many times that of the wheat-crop. 

The following table will show the marvellous growth of some 
of our American cities, during the past fifty years : — 

Census of 1880. Census of 1830. 

New York, . . 1,206,590 .... 202,589 

Philadelphia, . . 846,984 161,410 

Brooklyn, . . . 566,689 .... 15,396 

Chicago, -. . . 503,304 A prairie. 

Boston, ... . . . 362,538 ...... 61,392 

St Louis, . . . 350,522 6,694 



39 



Baltimore, 
Cincinnati, . . 
San Francisco, 
New Orleans. . 
Cleveland, 
Pittsburgh, . . 
Buffalo, . . . 
Washington, . 
Newark, . . 
Louisville, . 
Jersey City, . . 
Detroit, . . . 
Milwaukee, . . 
Providence, 
Albany, . . . 
Eochester, . . 
Alleghany, Pa., 
Indianapolis, . 
Bichmond, . . 
New Haven, . 
Lowell, . . . 
Worcester, 
Troy, . . . 
Kansas City, . 



332,190 80,621 

255,708 24,831 

238,956 .... Not settled. 

216,140 48,310 

160,142 . In 1840, . 671 

156,381 12,668 

155,137 8,653 

147,307 18,827 

136,460 10,955 

123,645 10,341 

120,728 1,025 

116,342 2,222 

115,518 . . . Settled in 1835v 

104,850 16,832 

90,903 24,238 

, 89,363 296 

78,681 .... Not settled. 

75,074 Not settled. 

63,003 16,062 

62,782 10,180 

59,485 6,474 

58,295 4,172 

56,747 11,405 

55,813 Not settled. 



I must not dwell longer on this national growth and prosperity- 
The intellectual, moral and aesthetic progress of the Eepublic, 
though not commensurate with her amazing material development, 
has, nevertheless, been creditable. The cause of education has 
made rapid advances. The Common School system, which originated 
in New England, has been successfully introduced into the South- 
ern and Western States. More than 7,000,000 children attend the 
free schools and are taught by more than 200,000 teachers. Many 
thousands attend private schools and academies. There are in the 
country 369 colleges, 93 theological seminaries, 88 medical schools, 
28 law schools, 81 normal schools, 235 female seminaries, and 1251 
academies. Of the colleges, Ohio has 34 ; Illinois, 28 ; California^. 



40 

12 ; Massachusetts, 7 ; New Jersey, 4 ; Maine, 3 ; Vermont, 2 ; 
Bhode Island and New Hampshire, each 1* Of the female semi- 
naries, Kentucky leads, she has 23 ; Tennessee, 17 ; Yirginia, 14 ; 
Massachusetts, 10 ; Maine, 2 ; New York, 15 ; Ohio, 12 ; Vermont, 
1. Prom the greater comparative number of institutions in the 
West, a stranger might conclude that the enlightenment is greater, 
or the ignorance of the people is denser, than in the East. The 
multiplication of colleges in a State is a mistaken policy. One or 
two well-endowed colleges serve the cause of the higher education 
of the people better than a score of feeble and half-equipped 
institutions. 

Excuse a personal reference. It was in 1839, at Rutgers In- 
stitute, I began my labors as a teacher of girls. Ample means 
were placed at my disposal to organize a system of female educa- 
tion such as had not been attempted in this or any other country. 
I was young and ready for work. Little had been done for the 
higher education of woman. Nothing of a public character. It 
was a prevailing opinion that woman could not master the abstract 
sciences. True, Maria Gaetana Agnesia had published her " In- 
stituzinoni Analytiche," and in consequence had been installed 
professor of mathematics in the University of Bologna; Mary 
Somerville had published her first work, a summary of the 
Mecanique Celeste of La Place under the title of " Mechanism of 
the Heavens ; " Miss Carolina Herschel had aided her father and 
distinguished brother in their astronomical researches ; but these 
were exceptional cases. In our most distinguished schools for 
girls, it was thought sufficient if the elements of algebra and 
geometry were taught. Little was done in chemistry, or physics. 
Emma Willard, of Troy, had organized a popular seminary which 
was the model school of the day. But, it was confined to ele- 
mentary instruction in common school branches, belles-lettres, and 
music. It attempted nothing higher. It was a school of polite 
learning for the drawing room. It taught the graces and accom- 
plishments of refined society. All admirable in their way and 
deserving of imitation. It is absurd to regard learning and good 
breeding as incompatible. Coarse manners and ignorance usually 
go together. Mrs. Willard's was a pioneer school and did a good 



41 

work. In many quarters, this limited system of instruction was 
thought sufficient ; that it was idle to attempt anything higher. 

The question with me was, can anything better be done ? Can 
girls be taught to grapple with the difficulties of abstract science? 
Can they study the higher mathematics? Can they comprehend 
a long sustained argument in ethics or philosophy ? I laid my 
plans which required time to mature. I prepared an extensive 
curriculum with the exception of the Greek classics, a college 
course. Its introduction was difficult. My teachers and pupils 
were not prepared for it. My teachers' knowledge was limited to 
the elements of algebra and geometry. By degrees, I introduced 
the study of solid and analytical geometry, plain and spherical 
trigonometry and the higher algebra. The pyramid was finally 
crowned with the differential and integral calculus. The course, 
in fact, was similar to that of the military academy at "West Point 
In consequence of the undisciplined minds of my pupils, at the 
beginning, it took several years for the perfect running of the 
sj^stem. Success was finally attained. My classes were examined 
by college professors of mathematics, whose printed reports are a 
guarantee of all I claim, viz., that woman can and did excel in the 
higher walks of learning. 

The wisdom of such an education for the majority of girls may 
be questioned. I have since modified the course by leaving out 
the calculus and adapting it to the requirements of what will be 
more useful, substituting the study of the Fine Arts — their history 
and philosophy— giving thereby a more symmetrical education to 
the future women of Society. 

For teaching practical chemistry, a laboratory furnished with 
expensive apparatus was built The young ladies put on their 
aprons, and experimented for themselves — a novel sight in those 
days ! A valuable library and cabinets of natural histoiy were 
collected. But I need not enlarge. The point I wish to establish 
is this, that Rutgers Female College of New York is the originator 
of the college system of education for women in this country. 

Much has been written on the history of education. One of 
the most voluminous writers was Prof. D. Buddingh, of the Royal 
Academy of Delft. But, as his works in many volumes were 



42 

written in Low Dutch, they are little known. The time, I think, 
has not yet come to write the philosophy of education. The views 
of educators are so diverse, their systems of instruction so varied, 
it will be necessary to wait before the true philosophy can be 
written. Herbert Spencer published an interesting treatise on the 
subject. He begins with the enquiry, " What knowledge is most 
worth? " Under this head, are the following topics : "The orna- 
namental precedes the useful." " The need for a standard of value." 
"The purpose of education." "Classification of our activities." 
" The order of subordination of subjects." " The rank of aesthetic 
culture." "The fine arts based on science." "Science itself 
poetic." "Studies best adapted to discipline." "Eeligious in- 
fluence of science." 

We have not space for even a summary of what he says on each 
of these topics. His conclusion is, that science is of most value — for 
the maintenance of life and health- — for that indirect self prepara- 
tion which we call gaining a livelihood — for the due regard of 
parental functions — for that interpretation of national life, past and 
present, without which the citizen cannot rightly regulate his con- 
duct — for the most perfect production and present enjoyment of art 
in all its forms, and for purposes of discipline — intellectual, moral 
and religious science is the sine qua non. 

He concludes by saying : " Science is the household drudge, 
who, in obscurity hides unrecognized perfections. To her has been 
committed all the work ; by her skill, intelligence and devotion, 
have all conveniences and gratifications been obtained ; and while 
ceaselessly ministering to the rest, she has been kept in the back- 
ground, that her haughty sisters might flourish their fripperies in 
the eyes of the world. The parallel holds yet further. For we 
are fast coming to the denouement, when the positions will be 
changed ; and while those haughty sisters sink into merited neg- 
lect, science, proclaimed as highest alike in worth and beauty, will 
reign supreme." 

The public press has become a powerful engine in society — a 
power in forwarding civilization and elevating man, which is in- 
creasing every year. The number of periodicals issued in the 
United States, is about 6,000. There are 548 papers which print 



43 

more than 5,000 copies each issue, and eleven which print more 
than 100,000 copies. The whole number of copies of newspapers 
printed annually exceed one billion. The number of books pub- 
lished in the United States averages 3,000 a year. Among the 
great editors and pioneers, were William L. Stone, James Watson 
Webb, William Cullen Bryant, Horace Greeley, Henry J. Eay- 
mond, James Gordon Bennett, Thurlow Weed, and many others. 
There are a large number of public and private libraries, some of 
which contain from 50,000 to 100,000 volumes, each. Many of 
them are rich in manuscripts and printed books, embracing the 
entire range of universal learning. The fine arts have received 
praiseworthy attention. Although our architecture has not 
reached the high standard of the European rennaissance, yet 
there has been a progressive improvement in fitness, convenience 
and comeliness. The art of music has made the greatest advance. 
In no country in Europe is there a greater interest taken in orches- 
tral, operatic and sacred music than in this country. It has 
become an essential accomplishment in a refined education. The 
pictorial and plastic arts are largely cultivated. Large sums of 
money are expended by our citizens of wealth in forming art 
galleries of paintings and statuary. Large and numerous col- 
lections of engravings and etchings are found iu private dwellings, 
as well as cabinets of costly ceramics of all countries. Cooking 
has, to some extent, become a fine art. A more refined civilization 
in the matters of food and clothing is seen in our households. 
The only danger is, that it may run into extravagance and dissipa- 
tion. But, if kept within proper limits, it will add much to the 
longevity and happiness of our people. The stomach and brain 
are sympathetic. The former supplies the material for the gener- 
ating forces of the latter. They are automatic. 

Allusion can only be made to the following great historical 
facts of the half century: 

Daguerre's Discovery in 1839. Talbot's paper photography, 
same year. Unveiling of the interior of Africa by Livingstone 
(1810), Speke, Stanley and others. War of the United States 
with Mexico (1816). Mormanism established in Utah, 1817. 



44 

Discovery of gold in California in 1848, and the consequent 
settlement of States on the Pacific Coast. The settlement of 
Australia by English speaking people in 1850. Discovery of 
the Northwest Passage by McClure, 1851. Opening, of Japan, 
1853. Crimean War in 1854, and death of Nicholas, March 
2, 1855 — Serf -Emancipation of 23,000,000, by Alexander II. 
and the Eussian Liberals, in 1861. The great American Civil 
"War, 1861. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, 1863. The 
Franco-Prussian War, 1870 — The Unification of Italy, and the 
end of the Pope's Temporal Power, 1870. Russo-Turkish War, 
1877. The Circumnavigation of Europe and Asia by Nordenskiold 
in the Vega, 1879 — Discovery of Oxygen in the Sun, by Henry 
Draper, 1877. On the 23d of April, 1838, the steamship " Sinus " 
arrived at New York, the first ocean steamer from England. A 
few hours later of the same day, arrived the " Great Western," 
which had left Liverpool four days after the "Sirius." 

The excitement caused by the arrival of these steamers was 
very great. Multitudes went to see them. Two or three years 
later, I saw Daniel Webster and his daughter leave for Europe on 
board the " Great Western." A great advance had been made in 
steam navigation. Fulton's first boat began running between New 
York and Albany, 1807. Three years after, a writer living in a 
country house on the Hudson, wrote : 

* * * u One of the curiosities that we daily see pass under our 
windows is the steamboat, a passage vessel with accommodation 
for near a hundred persons. It is moved by a steam-engine turn- 
ing a wheel on either side of it which acts like the main wheel of 
a mill and propels the vessel against wind and tide at the rate of 
four miles an hour. As soon as it comes in sight there is a general 
rush of the household to watch and wonder until it disappears. 
They don't all know what to make of the unnatural monster that 
o-oes steadily careering on with the wind directly in its teeth as often 
as not. I doubt that I should be obeyed were I to desire any one of 
them to take a passage in her. When first this vessel appeared in 
these waters it excited great consternation. Some of the simple 
country folks were pretty well frightened out of their wits, sus- 
pecting, I am told, it was some diabolical conveyance that had 



45 

brought his Satanic Majesty from the lower realms to visit the 
United States. I am inclined to look with favor on this applica- 
tion of the propelling power of steam. Not improbably it is 
destined at no distant day to produce incalculably great and bene- 
ficial changes in our mode of voyaging." — Notes and Queries. 

I cannot pass in silence the marvellous scientific discoveries 
which have been made since we left college, nor can I do them 
justice in the limited time at my disposal. 

The purely scientific knowledge we possess was discoverd 
almost entirely by means of original research. It is either by 
observing matter and its forces under new conditions or from a 
new aspect, that nearly all discoveries are made. Some discoveries 
are made by observing the phenomena of bodies placed under 
special conditions by those operations of nature over which we 
have little or no control. All our knowledge of astronomy and 
much of that of geology and physiology, was acquired in this 
way. Nearly all modern discoveries of importance in physics or 
chemistry, require long and difficult investigations to be made, in 
order to completely establish their truth. Scientific discovery is: 
the most valuable in its ultimate practical results when it is 
pursued from a love of truth as the ruling motive, and any 
attempt to make it more directly and quickly remunerative by 
trying to direct it immediately to practical objects, decreases the 
importance of its results, diminishes the spirit of enquiry, and 
sooner or later reduces it to the character of invention. The 
greatest practical realities of this age had their origin in a search 
after important truths, entirely irrespective of what utilities they 
might lead to. 

Many persons scarcely know the difference between science 
and art ; a still greater number cannot readily distinguish between 
a concrete science and a pure one ; and nearly all persons confound 
discovery with invention. A science may be conveniently defined 
as a collection of facts and general principles which are to be 
learned ; an art as a collection of rules which are to be followed. 
Art therefore is applied science ; and every art also has a basis in 
science, whether that basis has been discovered or not. Scientific 



46 

principles underlie not only manufacturing processes, but also 
sculpture, music, poetry and painting. 

When Oersted first observed a magnetic needle in proximity to 
a body through which a current of electricity was passing, had a 
tendency to place itself at right angles to such body, or more 
strictly speaking to rotate round that body ; and when Henry and 
Sturgeon discovered that if currents of electricity pass around a 
bar of soft iron, the iron becomes temporarily magnetic ; and when 
in that magnetic condition it powerfully attracts to it any pieces of 
soft iron which may be near it ; and when by the discoveries of 
Carlisle, Nicholson and Davy, that when a current of electricity 
passes through certain chemical substances, those substances are 
thereby decomposed, or new compounds are found, each made a 
scientific discovery. But when Morse applied those discoveries in 
the construction of his telegraph, which he first set up between 
Baltimore and Washington, he made an invention. In discovery, 
we search for new phenomena, their causes and relations; in in- 
vention, we seek to produce new effects, or to produce known 
effects in an improved manner. 

" There is nothing on earth so small that it may not produce 
great things." The most abstract and apparently trival experi- 
ments in original research have in some cases led to inventions and 
results of national and even world-wide importance. The con- 
tractions of a frog's leg in the experiments of Gralvani, and the 
movements of a magnetic needle in those of Oersted, have already 
led to the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars in laying 
telegraph wires all over the earth, and to an immense extension of 
international intercourse. But the original experiment of Oersted 
was not discovered without labor; it was only arrived at after 
many years of research. 

The laws of the mechanical action of conductors conveying 
currents upon magnets and upon each other were investigated by 
Ampere in a series of experiments, which were at once conclusive 
and exhaustive. 

Michael Faraday discovered magnetic electricity in 1831. 
His valuable contributions to physical science, in his researches 



47 

into the phenomena of electricity and magnetism, will always be 
acknowledged. 

Previously to the experiments of Faraday, the induction of 
electric currents was unknown. Faraday, in the first series of his 
experimental researches, describes an experiment in which a copper 
disc was made to rotate between the poles of an electro-magnet, 
while one electrode of a galvanometer was connected with the axis 
of the disc and the other with a wire which was held in contact 
with the edge of the disc, which edge was amalgamated to secure 
a good connection On spinning the disc, a current was imme- 
diately obtained, the direction of which was reversed with that of 
the rotation. This experiment may be regarded as the starting- 
point of the dynamo machines of Wilde, Gramme, Siemens and 
others, which seem destined to play so important a part in the 
civilized life of the future. 

Faraday also showed that where two circuits are placed near to- 
one another, if a current be started in one circuit, there is an 
instantaneous current produced in the opposite direction in the- 
neighboring circuit: while, on stopping the primary current, a 
transient current in the same direction as the primary occurs in the 
other or secondary circuit. This experiment was the origin of the 
now well-known induction coil. Again, when the current was 
flowing steadily in the primary circuit, if the secondary circuit 
were brought near to it, a current was induced in the secondary in 
the direction opposite to that in the primary, and continued during 
the approach of circuits.. On removing the secondary circuit, a 
transient current was set up in the same direction as that in the 
primary. 

The telephone is a beautiful example of the application of this 
law of induced currents. Every movement of the magnetic disc in 
front of the pole of the magnet alters the number of magnetic lines 
of force passing through the coils of wire surrounding the pole, and 
hence induces a current in one direction or the other in the coil, 
which current, increasing or diminishing the strength of the 
magnetism in the receiving telephone, causes a corresponding 
motion in the iron disc of the receiver, which, therefore, emits 
sounds similar to those incident upon the receiving instrument. 



48 

The determination of the laws of self-induction in electric 
currents is another of Faraday's many contributions to electrical 
science. If the poles of an electro-magnet be joined by a wire of 
great resistance, as well as by the battery, when the battery is 
removed, a considerable current will flow through the wire. This 
current Faraday called the eatfra-current It is more generally 
referred to as the self-induction current. 

There is a well-known experiment of Faraday, in which a 
specimen of his heavy glass, or borate of lead, was placed between 
the poles of a powerful electro-magnet, and a beam of plane 
polarized light was passed through the glass in the direction of the 
magnetic force. Faraday found that, when the light passed from 
the north to the south pole of the magnet, the plane of polarization 
was turned through an angle in the same direction as a right- 
handed screw would rotate if piercing a solid and advancing with 
the light. When the light passed in the opposite direction, the 
rotation of the plane of polarization was in the same direction with 
respect to the magnet, and therefore reversed with respect to the 
path of the light. In this respect, the heavy glass under the 
influence of the magnet behaved differently from a solution 
of sugar, which always turns the plane of polarization of the light 
in the same direction with reference to its direction of transmission. 
This was the first experiment which showed any relation between 
light and magnetism, and indicated that the medium which serves 
as the vehicle of light— the luminous ether— must at least be 
affected by the presence of magnetic force, though the fact that the 
presence of ponderable matter is necessary to the production of this 
rotation, and that the direction of the rotation depends on the 
nature of the matter, renders it doubtful how far magnetic force 
affects the ether directly. 

All transparent solids and liquids exhibit the same action on 
light in different degrees. If a tube of water, with plate glass 
rods be placed within a coil of wire through which an electric 
current is passing, and plane polarized light be transmitted through 
the tube, the plane of polarization will be turned through an angle 
in the direction in which the current circulates, and this angle can 
be proportional to the current 



Iu 1846, Faraday received the Royal and Rumford medals for 
his discourses on dia-magnetism and on the influence of magnetism 
upon light, respectively. In 1847, he declared the magnetic 
character of oxygen and the magnetic relations of flame and gases. 

In this same line of investigation we find our own countryman, 
Joseph Henry. In 1827, he began his investigations in electricity. 
In 1838, his "Contributions to Electricity and Magnetism" were 
■published. His scientific papers were published in The American 
Plrilosophical Transactions, ISillimans Journal, and the Journal of 
the Franklin Institute. 

He made several thousand original investigations in electricity, 
magnetism and electro-magnetism, which were never published. 
He is the undisputed inventor of the electric telegraph. In 1825, 
Mr. Barlow of the Royal Military Academy declared that the 
telegraph was impossible. In 1830, Prof. Henrv had a telegraph 
in working order of a mile and a half in length. It is to be under- 
stood, however, that the telegraph is the result of many scientific 
laborers from Oersted through along series of years; and that 
Henry supplied the missing link in the perfected chain by first 
rendering it applicable to the transmission of mechanical power, 
and by first actually magnetizing a piece of iron at a distance, 
and by it to deliver telegraphic signals. He also showed what 
kind of battery must be employed to project the current through 
a great length of wire, and what kind of coil should surround the 
magnet used to receive the current and do the work. 

The following are the main points in the order of discovery 
which led to the electro-magnetic telegraph. They are condensed 
from Prof. Henry's statement before Congress. 

1819-1820. Oersted showed that a magnetic needle is deflected 
by the action of a current of electricity passing near it. 

1820. Arago discovered that while a galvanic current is 
passing through a copper wire, it is capable of developing 
magnetism in soft iron. 

1820. Ampere discovered that two wires through which 
currents are passing in the same direction attract, and in opposite 
directions repel, each other; and thence he inferred that magnetism 
consists in the attraction of electrical currents revolving at righ^. 



50 

angles to the line joining the poles of the magnet, and is produced 
in a bar of steel or iron by induction from a series of electrical 
currents revolving in the same direction at right angles to the axis 
of the bar. 

1820. — -Schweigger produced the galvanometer. 

1825. — Sturgeon made the electro-magnet by bending the bar, 
or rather piece of iron wire, into the form of a horse-shoe, covering 
it with varnish to insulate it with a helix of wire, the turns of 
which were at a distance. 

1829-1830. — Henry, in accordance with the theory of Ampere, 
produced the intensity or spool-wound magnet, insulating the wire 
instead of the rod or bar, and covering the whole surface of the 
iron with a series of coils in close contact. He extended the 
principles to the full by winding successive strata of insulated wire 
over each other, thus producing a compound helix formed of a 
long wire of many coils. At the same time he developed the 
relation of the intensity magnet to the intensity battery, and their 
relations to the magnet of quantity. He thus made the electro- 
magnet capable of transmitting power to a long distance, demon- 
strated the principle and perfected the magnet applicable to the 
purpose, was the first actually to magnetize a piece of iron at a 
distance, and to demonstrate and declare the applicability of the 
electro-magnet to telegraphy at a distance. Using the terminus 
short circuit magnet of quantity and the armature as a signaling 
device, he was the first to make by it acoustic signals, sounding 
a bell at a distance by means of the electro-magnet. 

1833. — Weber discovered that the conducting wires of an 
electric telegraph could be left without insulation except at the 
points of support. 

1833. — Gauss ingeniously arranged the application of a dual 
sign in such a manner as to produce a true alphabet for telegraphy. 

1836. — Daniell invented or brought into use a constant gal- 
vanic battery. 

1837. — Steinheil discovered that the earth may form the 
returning half of the circuit, and that a single conducting wire 
suffices for telegraphy. 

1837. — Morse adopted, through the agency of Dr. Leonard 



51 

Grale, the principle of the Henry electro-magnet, and made of the 
armature a recording instrument. 

1838. — Morse devised his "dot and dash" alphabet, a great 
improvement upon the Gauss and Steinheil alphabets. 

1844. — Morse suggested and brought into use the system of 
relay-magnets and relay-circuits, to reinforce the current. 

The last is the most valuable contribution made by Prof. 
Morse. This system of reinforcing the electric current improved 
by Thompson and others, is necessary for the transmissing of 
messages over great distances by land or sea. We are ready to 
accord all due honor to Morse for his courage and success in 
introducing the best system of telegraphy, surpassing in value all 
the European systems. Still we must remember that he who first 
exalted the quantity magnet of Sturgeon, from a power of twenty 
pounds to a power of two thousand pounds, was the absolute 
creator of the intensity magnet ; and that the principles involved in 
this creation, constitute the indispensable basis of every form of 
the electro-magnetic telegraph in existence. This great honor 
belongs to Henry. Besides this, he was the inventor of the 
chronograph, of the electro-magnetic engine, and was an independ- 
ent discoverer of magnetic-electricity. 

It is true of both Faraday and Henry, that they cared little for 
the application of their scientific discoveries to the useful arts. 
Their chief aim was to interpret the laws of nature without 
regard to any higher reward than what comes from the satisfaction 
of enlarging the boundaries of human knowledge. Both pos- 
sessed little of this world's goods, and died poor. 

During nearly of the whole of Henry's scientific career, I had 
the honor of a personal acquaintance with him. While at Prince- 
ton, he often wrote me on scientific subjects. In 1842, he made 
in my laboratory in New York, a series of experiments on atmos- 
pheric electricity. Some of the apparatus he there contrived, is 
still in my possession. 

Among the greatest of American electricians must be placed 
in imperishable letters, the names of Franklin and Henry. 

I wish to put this minute on record, to show the noble 
character of Prof. Henry. When Morse applied to Congress, in 



52 

1837, for an appropriation to enable him to make a trial of 
his telegraph, he became the butt of ridicule, and was fairly driven 
out of Washington. He went to Europe, and, returning in 1339, 
renewed his importunities. The shafts of ridicule flew thicker and 
faster. In the estimation of Congress, he was the greatest joker of 
the century. Dr. John Torrey, returning from Washington, said, 
" It is of no use ; Morse is the laughing stock of Washington ; he 
will have to go back to portrait painting." 

At this time, John C. Spencer was Secretary of War. And, 
wishing to know whether there was anything in Morse's invention, 
visited Princeton to see Henry. Henry assured him that the 
telegraph was practicable, as he could show himself by an examina- 
tion of the short line he had set up in the college campus. Spencer 
was satisfied, and, returning, communicated his opinion to the 
leading men in Congress ; and, as a result, the bill appropriating 
$30,000 was passed, securing the honor of Morse's world-renowned 
telegraph to the United States, through the services of Spencer and 
Henry. 

In 1851, the submarine telegraph cable was laid between 
Dover and Calais; in 186fi, the Atlantic cable between Europe 
and America. The transmission of messages over such great 
distances required more delicate apparatus than had been used in 
communicating between stations on land. Sir William Thompson 
was successful in improving the apparatus. Until eight or nine 
years ago, the Morse system, with its printing attachment, was the 
only thing known. The first important improvement was the 
Wheatstone automatic instrument, by which greater sj)eed was 
obtained by the use of chemicals. The capacity of a single wire 
was also doubled by the ingenuity of Stearns, of Boston. An in- 
teresting and valuable invention, chiefly due to the researches of 
Edison, is widely used, by which two messages can be sent in the 
same direction and at the same time, over one wire. It is also 
true, that two messages can be sent simultaneously on the same 
wire in opposite directions, while by the employment of the du- 
plex system, the capacity is again doubled, thus furnishing the 
quadruple system now in general use on all the main lines of 



53 

telegraph in this country. To invent a cheap system of telegraphy 
has led to the introduction and trial of a great number of other 
systems with which the names of Hayes, Edison, Casselli and 
IVLayer are associated. Later came the so-called harmonic tele- 
graphs of Eeis, Varley, La Cour. and Gray. When Wheatstone, 
Siemens, Halskie and Edison sought to do away with the Morse 
operation, real progress was made. The system of telegraphy as 
now carried on by the American Eapid Telegraph Company is the 
nearest approach to high speed and cheapness yet devised. By 
means of perforated paper which works automatically, the trans- 
mitting operation is gotten rid of, and at the other end, a ribbon 
moistened with chemicals does the work of the receiving opera- 
tor. We are, I think, on the eve of a great revolution in tele- 
graphy by the ingenious contrivances of Mr. Parcelle, of Boston. 
His system is called " Harmonic, Automatic Telegiuphy," and 
differs from that in use by the Rapid Telegraph Company in two 
important points. The first is an improved and abbreviated con- 
struction of the alphabet. The second is the employment of a 
system of sympathetic resonance, by which, with the use of a 
single wire and unskilled operators, the same amount of work 
which is now done by ten wires and skilled labor can be accom- 
plished. Thus, for the first time in the history of telegraphy, the 
Morse alphabet and system are done away with, as are also the 
translating and transcribing by receivers. Instead of requiring the 
ordinary handling and delay, the message, be it long or short, is 
rapidly prepared in a perforating machine fed into the transmitter, 
and is instantly reproduced in clear Boman letters on sheets of 
paper ready to be sent by a messenger to the party addressed. The 
actual number of words sent, on an average, by the American 
Bapidisfrom 600 to 700 per minute, while the lowest computa- 
tions made from results obtained from an instrument only partially 
completed, shows a speed by the new method of 5,000 words per 
minute. A great advantage, too, is that, being sent over a single 
wire, the matter comes consecutively, and is, therefore, free from 
liability to error, as is often the case, where several wires are u.sed 
for the sending of a single dispatch. 

A new application of photography in connection with the 



54 

science of telegraphy lias been made by Mr. Parcelle, in which he 
has succeeded in producing a combination whereby, on land 
lines, messages can be transmitted by electricity and recorded by 
photographic action. This can be done successfully at the rate of 
about 1,400 words per minute; the words being distinctly tran- 
scribed in plain Eoman in folio form. A feature of this device is 
that it requires so little current, that it is as easily operated at a 
distance of 5,000 miles as 5 feet without relays. It is entirely 
automatic, and requires no supervision. The Atlantic cable is 
now operated by Thompson's galvanometer, by which only 13 
words per minute can be sent, and requires not less than two 
operators at the receiving end, and even then there is great lia- 
bility to mistake. The cable rates are now fifty cents per word. 
The new system will easily transmit and record, automatically, 
300 words per minute, and the result can hardly fail of being an 
important reduction in the present tariff. 

According to the estimates of a French statistician, the total 
length of all the telegraph wires at present laid is sufficient to 
reach forty-six times around the earth. The estimated total length 
of all the submarine telegraph cables in the world is 62,100 miles? 
and their money value is $200,000,000. 

The Telephone and Microphone are recent inventions, by which 
the human voice is transmitted through an electric conductor 
from one station to another, so that a conversation can be carried 
on at great distances apart. This is one of the recent marvels. 
Edison, Bell, Hughes, Dolbear and others, are the inventors. 

The Electric Light is another gift to society. Although it has 
not been so perfected as to be introduced into our dwellings as 
economically as gas, it is believed that through the labors of 
Siemens, Gramme, Edison, Weston and others, success will be 
finally won. 

Photography, with its development and applications, is a sub- 
ject of :.marvellous interest. 

The first attempts at fixing images by light were published in 



55 

the Journal of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, in June, 
1802. They were made by Wedge wood and Davy. 

In 1814, M. Miepce and M. Daguerre took up the subject. In 
1829, they entered into partnership. The discovery of the 
Daguerreotype was reported to the world in January, 1839. It 
was at a memorable public seance in the Palais Mazarin, on the 
19th of August, 1839, that Daguerre, in the presence of all the 
great authorities in art, science and diplomacy, who were then in 
Paris, illustrated his process by expeiiment. An Act had been 
passed by the French Government, which gave to Daguerre an 
annuity of 6,000 francs, and to M. Isodore Niepce, the son of 
Daguerre's partner, an annuity of 4,000 francs, with one-half in 
reversion for their widows. 

Arago declared that " France had adopted this discovery, and 
was proud to hand it as a present to the whole world." 

In January, 1839, six months previous to the publication of 
Daguerre's process, Mr. Fox Talbot, of London, made known to 
the Royal Society his discovery, and the next month published his 
process of fixing the camera image on paper, which was called the 
" Talbot-type." Talbot secured a patent, for which he was severely 
criticised. From his process is derived the beautiful Paper 
Photography, as now practiced, and the still more beautiful process 
for positives on glass. The Daguerre process has been superseded by 
that of Talbot. Daguerreotypes are no longer found in the market. 

Daguerre taught a large number of persons from all parts of the 
world the process. Sachse of Berlin, a dealer in art, was initiated 
into Daguerre's discovery on the 22d of April, 1839, and was 
appointed Daguerre's agent in Germany. On the 22d of September, 
four weeks after the publication of the discovery, Sachse had 
already produced his first picture, at Berlin. In October, the 
earliest Daguerrean apparatus was sold in Berlin. 

The first objects photographed by Sachse were architectural 
views, statuary and paintings, which, for two years, found a ready 
sale as curiosities. It was in 1840 that he first represented groups 
of living persons, and, in this way, photography became especially 
an art of portraiture. 

Daguerre's first pictures needed an exposure of 20 minutes, too 



56 

long for taking portraits. He, therefore, stated that living objects 
could not be photographed — they could not keep still long enough. 
The publication of the discovery produced the liveliest interest 
in scientific circles. Pamphlets describing the apparatus and the 
process were issued from the French press. The first to reach 
New York was brought from London by Mr. Seger of New York. 
As the packet ship on which he sailed was leaving her clock, one 
of Daguerre's pamphlets was thrown on the deck by a friend of Mr. 
Seger, who, immediately on his arrival in New York, took it to 
Prof. Morse, of Telegraph fame.' Morse was quick to see that a 
new field of art-industry would be opened. He took it to his 
instrument-maker, George W. Prosch, and said, " Make the appa- 
ratus as soon as you can." In a few days it was done, and the first 
trial was a picture of the Old Brick Church (Dr. Spring's) and the 
City Hall, with a hack, horses, and driver who was sleeping on his 
box. Prosch's shop was in the basement of the old Morse Build- 
ing. 142 Nassau street. The camera was placed on the steps leading 
to the basement. This was the first photograph taken in this 
country. It was in October, 1839, less than a month after Seger's 
arrival. 

As Prosch did work for me, I was in his shop almost every 
day, and knew all that was going on. Prof. Morse, Dr. James E. 
Chilton, chemist, C. W. Prosch, Dr. John W. Draper and myself 
entered with great zeal into the practice of the new art. The first 
thing of importance was to get an accurate lens which could give 
the best result ; and the next, chemicals more sensitive than iodine 
to the action of light. Draper, the accomplished chemist and 
afterward the renowned physicist, was successful in employing an 
acromatic lens, which he has described, and in mixing bromine 
with iodine or their salts, thereby reducing the time for the light 
to act upon the plate, and, as a consequence, obtained the first 
portrait of a living human face. 

Draper, in his Scientific Memoirs, page 215, in a Historical 
Note on the taking of portraits from life by photography, published 
in the London Philosophical Magazine, September, 1840, says : 
"This Memoir contains the first published description of the 
process for taking daguerreotype portraits. That it was possible 



57 

by photogenic processes, such as the daguerreotype, to obtain 
likenesses from life was first announced by the author of this 
volume in a note to the editors of the Philosophical Magazine, 
dated March 31, 1840, as may be seen in that journal for June, 
1840, page 535. The first portraits to which allusion is made in 
the following memoir were produced in 1839, almost immediately 
after Daguerre's discovery was known in America," 

In the Edinburgh Review for January, 1843, there is an 
important article on Photography — in that, the invention of the 
art of taking photographic portraits is attributed to its true source 
■ — the author of this book. It says : " He was the first, we 
believe, who, under the brilliant summer sun of New York, took 
portraits by the daguerreotype. This branch of photography seems 
not to have been regarded as a possible application of Daguerre's 
invention, and no notice was taken of it in the reports made to the 
legislative bodies of France. We have been told that Daguerre 
had not at that period taken any portraits ; and, when we consider 
the period of time — twenty or twenty-five minutes— which was 
then deemed necessary to get a daguerreotype landscape, we do not 
wonder at the observation of a French author, who describes the 
taking of portraits as " Toujours un terrain un peu, fahuleux pour le 
Daguerreotype.''' 1 

" Very soon after M. Daguerre's remarkable process for 
photogenic drawing was known in America, I made attempts to 
accomplish its application to the taking portraits from the life. 
M. Arago had already stated, in his address to the Chamber 
of Deputies, that M. Daguerre expected by a slight advance to 
meet with success, but as yet no account had reached us of that 
object being attained. 

" In the first experiments I made for obtaining portraits from 
the life, the face of the sitter was dusted with a white powder 
under an idea that otherwise no impression could be obtained. A 
very few trials showed the error of this, for, even when the 
sun was only dimly shining, there was no difficulty in delineating 
the features." 

Unless a prior date can be shown in favor of some other 
photographer, Draper's claim must stand. 



58 

Proscli opened a daguerrean gallery at the corner of Broadway 
and Liberty street. The light of the sun was thrown directly in 
the face of the sitter by means of a mirror, which was suspended 
out of the window. All the portraits, as a consequence, did not 
show the eyes, which gave the features a ghostly look. I was one 
of the first to sit to him. These early specimens, for I had many, 
I used to exhibit in my lectures on photography. But, 
unfortunately, after a few years' exposure, they faded oat, for the 
process of gilding was not yet known which makes the picture 
permanent. 

Aboivt this time, or soon after, many others went into the 
business, and among the most successful was A. S. Wolcott, 
a mechanician, who opened daguerrean rooms in the granite 
building, No. 273 Broadway, corner of Chambers street. I 
immediately made his acquaintance and sat for my portraits. 
Several of these are still in my possession. 

A fuller history of photography has been given than would 
have been necessary had not the priority of taking portraits been 
questioned. Some twenty years ago, an attempt was made in the 
American Institute of New York to take the honor from Draper 
and give it to A. S. Walcott. A committee was appointed to 
investigate the claim. Dr. Draper was called on, who furnished 
the committee with a written statement, which was substantially 
the same as that published in his Memoirs. The friends of 
Walcott refused to make a statement in writing, and, as a 
consequence, the matter was dropped. Morse, I think, had a 
better claim than Walcott, who photographed his daughter on the 
top of a house in Broadway in 1839, but he never set up the 
claim of priority to Draper's. 

One of the most valuable instruments of modern research is 
the Spectroscope, which was invented by Kirckhoff, of Berlin, in 
1859. It has interpreted the dark lines of the solar spectrum. 
It has solved the most delicate problems of chemical and micro- 
scopical investigation which seemed inscrutable before this method 
of research had been invented. It has penetrated the heavens 
and revealed the composition of the sun, stars and nebulse. It 



59 

has shown the presence of several terrestial elements in the solar 
atmosphere, thereby proving that the Universe of worlds is com- 
posed of similar elementary matter. 

One of the most striking operations of spectrum analysis is the 
application of it, devised by Dr. Huggins, to the determination of 
the rate of motion of the stars, to or from the solar system. 
Light of any color is due to quicker vibrations than light of a 
color nearer the red end of the spectrum. Dr. Huggins observed, 
that in the spectra of some of the star?, the dark lines were at 
exactly the distance apart that they would be if they were pro- 
duced by known gases, but that they were all displaced out of 
their true positions on the spectrum. He therefore was led to 
believe that when the lines are displaced towards the blue end of 
the spectrum, the star is moving towards us ; when towards the red 
end, it is moving from us. Knowing the wave length of light of 
every color, and knowing the velocity of light, he was able to 
estimate by measuring the displacement, the rate of motion of the 
star. 

Of all the heavenly bodies, that of whose constitution spec- 
trum analysis has taught us so much, and that which is the most 
important to us, being the source of all the heat and light and life 
of our system, is the Sun. During a total eclipse, we can see 
much of him which is ordinarily obscured by his glare. He 
appears to consist of several concentric spheres of different sorts of 
matter. Outside all, is the zodiacal light which, on the nebular 
hypothesis, consists of uncondensed nebulous matter. Inside this, 
but sun'ounding the sun to a distance about equal to his diameter 
and with streamers issuing from it to a much greater distance, is a 
bright glare called the corona. Inside this again and close round 
the sun, is a rose-colored envelope called the chromatosphere, from 
which prominences issue occasionally to a height of more than a 
third of the sun's diameter, and inside all is the bright surface 
of the sun, which is ordinarily visible, and which is called the 
photosphere; on this are dark spots which look like holes opening 
into unknown depths. 

Spectrum analysis tells us that the zodiacal light is reflected 
sunlight ; that the corona shines mainly with reflected sunlight, 



60 

but that it also contains a self-luminous unknown gas ; that the 
chromatosphere with its prominences consists almost entirely of 
incandescent hydrogen, though occasionally other gases appear in 
it ; the photosphere gives the ordinary solar spectrum, and there- 
fore must consist of incandescent solid or liquid, or gas at an 
intensely great pressure. 

We learn, then : 1. That the temperature of the sun is so high 
that the metals are in a state of vapor. 2. That we know nothing 
of the central parts of the sun. 3. That the photosphere, or 
brilliant disc of the sun, is probably gaseous ; is the seat of violent 
commotions, transcending all terrestrial cyclones ; is covered with 
flame-like granules ; that it contains two regions of spots, one lying 
to the north, the other to the south of the solar equator ; that the 
spots revolve at different speeds, depending upon their latitude ; 
that the speed in the northern zone are greater than those in 
corresponding latitudes in the south ; that the spots are variable in 
duration ; that they come and go in a cycle of about 11.07 years ; 
this cycle influences terrestrial magnetism, temperature, rainfall 
and other phenomena ; the cycle depends upon the planetary 
positions ; the spots are comparatively cool regions, caused by a 
down-rush of vapor ; the motion of the vapors is cyclonic ; in the 
neighborhood of the spots bright faculae occur; around the 
photosphere is a region of glowing vapors, chiefly hydrogen, called 
the chromatosphere, which is the seat of violent commotions ; yet, 
plains and heaped prominences recording their existence, some of 
which is irruptive, others cyclonic 

In 1877, Professor Henry Draper of New York, in his 
spectroscopic experiments, discovered oxygen in the sun. He 
found that it gave bright lines on the solar spectrum in contrast to 
the dark lines given by the metallic bodies. For this reason, it 
had escaped notice, for it is more difficult to see bright lines on a 
bright spectrum than dark ones. This discovery of Draper proves 
the existence of certainly one of the metalloids in the sun. It 
also shows that the solar spectrum must be regarded as continuous, 
with both bright and dark lines, and that the bright lines are in all 
probability those of the metalloids. His brilliant discovery affords 



61 

strong grounds for the hope that metalloids may be detected 
almost as readily as metals. 

Another fascinating study of which we knew nothing in our 
college course is the polarization of light. By the use of the 
polariscope, adulterations of many articles of commerce can be 
detected ; the existence, in many tissues, of differences of density 
which would be inappreciable under ordinary illumination ; beautiful 
appearances in all irregularly laminated cells. In a word, the 
polariscope is useful for displaying the minute structure of many 
substances, in some of which it cannot be detected in any other 
way, and frequently causing crystals to present a most gorgeous 
array of colors. 

In 1858, Helmholtz published his interesting investigations in 
molecular mechanics. It is a mathematical discussion of what he 
calls ring- vortices in a perfect, frictional fluid, and that they possess 
an eternal perpetuity, although passing through endless transforma- 
tions. The element of the new physics is not an atom or congeries 
of atoms, but a whirling vapor. All we know of matter is its 
presence and its motion. The modern science of Acoustics is also 
due to this great German philosopher. 

In 1849, Fizeau, and, in 1862, Foucoult, undertook the 
determination of the difficult problem of the velocity of light; 
according to the former 180,000, according to the latter 185,000 
miles per second. The difference in their results is only about 
six per cent. The arithmetical mean of the two values comes 
very near to the astronomer's estimate of the velocity of light. 
By these experiments, which were conducted on entirely different 
methods, the science of optics is placed on an independent basis. 

METEOROLOGY. 

This science is of recent development. Lieut. Reid and Col. 
Fitzroy of England, and Redfield and Espy of this country, made 
a series of observations on the laws of storms which were published 
in Silliman's and other journals ; but nothing practical was under- 
taken till a system of observations was established by the Regents 
of the University of New York, under the patronage of the 



62 

Legislature, in 1825. The colleges and academies of the State 
were selected as the proper agents to carry out the purpose of the 
Regents. A large accumulation of observations was made, but 
owing to the want of a proper method of conducting the observa- 
tions, with uniform instruments, the labor was to a very large 
extent lost. 

In 1849 and 1850, another appropriation was made to establish 
a new system of observations. The Eegents at Albany employed 
Prof. Arnold Gruyot, of Neuchatel, Switzerland, a student long- 
devoted to science, a pupil of Carl Eitter, and author of a valuable 
work on Physical Geography, and since known as the learned 
professor at Princeton College, to take charge of the stations. 

The following note was received from the Secretary of the 
Board of Regents : 

" Albany, November 24, 1849. 
" Chaeles E. West, Esq. : 
" Dear Sir, — 

" I send this merely to say that Rutgers Female Institute 
has been selected as one of the meteorological stations. Prof. 
Guyot will visit you some time next month and make all necessary 
arrangements. " Yours truly, 

"T. Romeyn Beck." 

In accordance with the Secretary's instructions, Prof. Guyot 
visited me and arranged the apparatus. Observations at definite 
hours and three times a day were made, while I remained in New 
York, and afterward at Buffalo. 

In 1850, a general system of meteorological observations was 
established at Washington under the direction of Joseph Henry of 
the Smithsonian Institution. A Weather Bureau was established 
by the United States Government, and General Albert Meyer, an 
army officer, was appointed Superintendent. Under his arrange- 
ment, the system was perfected, the advantages of which to 
commerce and the general industries of the country are of 
incalculable importance. 

One of the most extraordinary feats of intellectual power during 
the half century was the calculating engine of Charles Babbage. It 



furnishes demonstrative evidence that the whole of the develop- 
ments and operations of analysis are now capable of being executed 
by machinery. There are various methods by which these 
developments are arrived at: 1. By the aid of the Differential 
and Integral Calculus. 2. By the Combinatorial Analysis of 
Hindenburg. 3. By the Calculus of Derivatives of Arbegast. 

A new science is " Kinematics," or what Prof. Willis called the 
"Science of pure Mechanism," and Bankine the "Geometry of 
machinery," and " Becoleaux Kinematics," 

Every department of Natural History has been enlarged and 
enriched. Mineralogy, geology, paleontology, botany, zoology, 
entomology, etc., are newly created sciences. Our countrymen 
who have labored in these departments come in for their share of 
the honors. B_y legislative enactment, large sums of money have 
been expended for geological surveys. North Carolina took the 
lead in 1824 and 1825, under Prof. Olmsted; South Carolina 
under Prof. Vanuxum : Massachusetts, under Hitchcock, in 1830 ; 
Maine, in 1836, under C. F. Jackson. New York, Connecticut and 
other States have followed, and a large mass of valuable informa- 
tion has been gained for the benefit of the miner, the farmer and 
the political economist. 

In biology, in animal and vegetable physiology, the microscope 
has opened up new sources of information. In the study of cell- 
development, the labors of Fallopius in 1562, Borellus in 1656, 
Haller in 1757, Wolf in 1759, and, many years later, Schleiden 
and Schwann, have been continued by Huxley, Bastian, Haeckel, 
Wallace, Verchow and others. Huxley, " On the Physical Basis 
of Life," observes that the existence of the matter of life depends 
on the pre-existence of certain compounds, namely, carbonic acid, 
water and ammonia. Withdraw any one of these three from the 
world, and all vital phenomena are at an end. They are related to 
the protoplasm of the plant as the protoplasm of the plant is to 
that of the animal. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen are 
lifeless bodies. Of these, carbon and oxygen unite in certain 



64 

proportions and under certain conditions, to give rise to carbonic 
acid ; hydrogen and oxygen produce water ; nitrogen and hydrogen 
give rise to ammonia. These new compounds, like the elementary 
bodies of which they are composed, are lifeless. But when they 
are brought together, under certain conditions, they give rise to a 
still more complex body — protoplasm — and this protoplasm 
exhibits the phenomena of life. Subsequently, cells are developed, 
but they are mere cavities and not independent entities ; organiza- 
tion is not affected by them ; they are the visible results of the 
action of the organizing power inherent in the living mass, or what 
"Wolf calls the vis essentialis, and Bastian " Spontaneous genera- 
tion." Then comes the free cell development of Schleiden, which 
he divides into two distinct methods of cell growth, one of which, 
the so-called " exogenous free-cell formation," must be regarded as 
a true creative art, while the other, " endogenous cell formation," is 
a mere continuance of the process, or cell formation. In the midst 
of a perfectly structureless, clear, transparent fluid, which he calls 
blastema, cyto-blastema, granules are first seen, some of which 
increase in size and assume the form of a minute visicle, the 
nucleus of the future cell. On the addition of water to this, 
granules become apparent in its interior, and one of these, larger 
than the rest, appears to be the nucleolus. Around the nucleolus, 
the cell membrane is developed and the cell is completed. 

In 1858, the doctrine of spontaneous evolution was revived by 
Pouchet of France. Pasteur of the French Academy repeated 
Pouchet's experiments and found them of no value. Bastian of 
London declared that he was justified in "believing that living 
things may and do arise, de novo.' 1 '' In his " Beginnings of Life," 
he declares that monads, bactriae, torulae, vibrios, liptothrix, 
filaments, fungus, spores, etc., are developed from solutions of 
organic and saline substances absolutely destitute of living germs ; 
hence they must originate de novo. 

Here we have among these naturaljsts, what may be called the 
battle of the Cell ! The question comes, What is Life ? Ah ! 
That is the question of questions ! No chemical analysis is subtle 
enough to determine that ! ' No penetrating power of the sunbeam, 
however skillfully used, can pierce that inscrutable secret of the 



65 

Almighty ! He who made the elementary matter which combines 
in certain well-known proportions 1ms shown his creative power, 
bnt chosen to conceal that impalpable, subtle something, which 
vitalizes the vegetable and animal organism which we call life ! 
The secret of his working lies outside of the domain of philo- 
sophical investigation. 

There is an unwillingness on the part of many scientific men to 
admit a Power acting on matter "from without," a Grod who 
"orders the Universe from a position outside it all." Tyndall, 
while treating of and explaining the methods of Nature, entirely 
drops out of thought the Power which works along these methods. 
" The very story of saline crystals and ice-stars, and fern fronds and 
human birth," he asks, "What else is there here than matter?" 
Much ! The movements of matter, with their disposing and 
formative power, the attracting and repelling energies, which, 
dealing with molecules and cells, are not molecules and cells. 
Science deals only with sequences and succession of phenomena — 
not with causality. Science cannot tell us what it is that does the 
work — what it is that produces these movements of matter. 

Evolution cannot account for the origin of things, nor can it 
explain the general laws of Nature. There never was and never 
can be any evidence that inanimate matter can produce mind, or 
that mechanical action can produce mental activity. There is not 
even the semblance of the presence in the original atoms scientists 
talk about, of the life, mind, feeling, consciousness, power of judg- 
ment, discernment and reasoning that subsequently make them- 
selves manifest. 

Scientists generally agree that "force can neither be created nor 
destroyed," and that "the quantity of force in nature is just as 
eternal and unalterable as the quantity of matter." 

Dr. Barnard, in his address before the Scientific Association in 
1869, says : " Organic changes are physical effects, and may be 
received without hesitation as the representative equivalents of 
physical forces expended. But sensation, will, emotion, passion, 
thought, are in no conceivable sense physical. 

" The philosophy which makes thought a form of force, makes 
thought a mode of motion, converts the thinking being into a 



66 

mechanical automaton, whose sensations, emotions and intellections 
are mere vibrations prod need in its material substance by the plaj 
of physical forces, and whose conscious existence must forever 
cease when the exhausted organism shall, at length, fail to respond 
to these external impulses. 

" Thought can not be a physical force, because it admits of no 
measure. A thing unsusceptible of measure cannot be a quantity r 
and a thing that is not even a quantity cannot be a force." 

In this connection, allow me to introduce a few passages from 
the famous "Discourse on Molecules," delivered before the British 
Association at Bradford, in September, 1873, by James Clark 
Maxwell : " In the heavens we discover by their light, and by 
their light alone, stars so distant from each other that no material 
thing can ever have passed from one to another ; and yet this 
light, which is to us the sole evidence of the existence of these 
distant worlds, tells us also that each of them is built up of 
molecules of the same kind as those which we find on earth. A 
molecule of hydrogen, for example, whether in Sinus or Arcturus, 
executes its vibrations in precisely the same time. 

" Each molecule, therefore, throughout the universe has im- 
pressed upon it the stamp of a metric system as distinctly as 
does the metre of the Archives at Paris, or the double royal cubit 
of the temple of Karnac. 

" No theory of evolution can be formed to account for the 
similarity of molecules, for evolution necessarily implies continuous 
change, and the molecule is incapable of growth, or decay, of 
generation or destruction." 

None of the processes of Nature since the time when Nature 
began have produced the slightest difference in the properties of 
any molecule. We are therefore unable to ascribe either the 
existence of the molecules or the identity of their properties to any 
of the causes which we call natural. 

On the other hand, the exact equality of a molecule to all others 
of the same kind gives it, as Sir John Herschel has well said, the 
essential character of a manufactured article, and precludes the idea 
of its being eternal and self-existent. 

Thus we have been led along a strictly scientific path, very 



67 

near to the point at which science must stop. Not that science is 
debarred from studying the internal mechanism of a molecule 
which she cannot take to pieces, any more than from investigating 
an organism which she cannot put together. But in tracing back 
the history of matter, science is arrested when she assures herself, 
on the one hand, that the molecule has been made, and, on the 
other, that it has not been made by any of the processes we call 
natural. 

Science is incompetent to reason upon the creation of matter 
itself out of nothing. We have reached the utmost limits of our 
thinking faculties when we have admitted that, because matter 
cannot be eternal and self-existent, it must have been created. 

It is only when we contemplate, not matter in itself, but the 
form in which it actually exists, that our mind finds something on 
which it can lay hold. 

That matter, as such, should have certain fundamental properties 
■ — that it should exist in space and be capable of motion — that its 
motion should be persistent, and so on — are truths which may be, 
for anything we know, of the kind which metaphysicians call 
necessary. "We may use our knowledge of such truths for 
purposes of deduction, but we have no data for speculating as to 
their origin. 

But that there should be exactly so much matter and no more 
in every molecule of hydrogen is a fact of a very different order. 
We have here a particular distribution of matter — a collocation — 
to use the expression of Dr. Chalmers, of things which we have a 
difficulty in imagining to have been arranged otherwise. 

The form and dimensions of the orbits of the planets, for 
instance, are not determined by any law of nature, but depend 
upon a particular collocation of matter. The same is the case with 
respect to the size of the earth from which the standard of what is 
called the metric system has been derived. But these astronomical 
and terrestrial magnitudes are far inferior in scientific importance 
to that most fundamental of all standards which forms the base of 
the molecular system. Natural causes, as we know, are at work, 
which tend to modify, if they do not at length destroy, all the 
arrangements and dimensions of the earth and the whole solar 



68 

system. But though in the course of ages catastrophes have 
occurred, and may yet occur, in the heavens, though ancient 
systems may be dissolved and new systems evolved out of their 
ruins, the molecules out of which these systems are built — the 
foundation-stones of the material universe — remain unbroken and 
unworn. They continue this day as they were created — perfect in 
number and measure and weight ; and from the ineffaceable 
characters impressed on them, we may learn that those aspirations 
after accuracy in measurement and justice in action, which we 
reckon among our noblest attributes as men, are ours because they 
are essential constituents of the image of Him who in the beginning 
created not only the heaven and the earth, but the materials of 
which heaven and earth consist. A scientific conception of the 
universe must embrace the three mysteries — Matter, Life and God. 
We need not trouble ourselves with anxieties about questions 
which Science may suggest ; we feel sure, as Graham remarks, 
"that there is in the Universe an existence over and above all 
phenomena, whether viewed as unconditional existence with Kant - t 
as infinite substance with Spinoza ; as inscrutable Power with 
Spencer ; a transcendent Something, of which matter and mind are 
alike merely phenomenal manifestations or modes which are far 
from being exhaustive of its whole nature. There is an Ultimate 
Reality, vaster and deeper than all we know or dream of matter, 
grander than all we can think of or imagine, in mind. There is a 
mighty living and universal Power which lives and moves in the 
universal being and essence of all persons — a Power, resistless but 
beneficent, of which matter and energy, life and light, thought and 
volition, are but forms ; a Power, too, whose exhaustless life and 
energy are but slightly drawn upon by all the various demands 
made upon it in our little earth, working, as it does, simultaneously 
as one and the same power in each of the myriad stellar systems 
disposed through infinite space. In the most distant orbs, from 
which Science, by her searching analysis and improved methods of 
observation, has recently brought back her spectroscopic, supple- 
menting here telescopic, reports ; the same Power is displayed in 
the composition of matter and in the maintainance of law as at 
home on the earth ; and probably in many of those distant 



6*9 

spheres it works in the product'on of life, while probably also, 
nay somewhere certainly ; and whether working by other and 
superior art, or working, as here, by natural selection chiefly, it has 
attained to grander and more excellent results than the choicest 
terrestrial things — to a truth more clear and free from error, to a 
beauty more pervading, to a happiness less fugitive and more 
unalloyed, to a virtue superior to our poor earthly product." 

This Ultimate Power "is no more representable in terms 
of human consciousness than human consciousness is representable 
in terms of a plant's formation." While man remains subject to- 
the limitations of consciousness, he cannot compass in thought an 
existence transcending all consciousness, and man must be forever 
subject to these limitations. 

This Ultimate Reality in the universe is God. 

There is a Power behind phenomena, which produces them ; a 
substance one and the same at the bottom of the universe and of 
our thought, which preserves them both in law and order; a 
Power whose existence is our only final guarantee that the 
physical universe will not resolve itself into chaos before our eyes T 
and that the universal reason will keep steady on her throne. This 
Power removed— if we could or dare suppose it — anarchy in the 
atoms, universal chaos within and without, in the brain and in the 
cosmos, is conceivable ; this Power present and eternally support- 
ing all is our guarantee to the contrary. And, once more, this 
final support and Power, is Grod. 

In looking over Newton's Principia, I came across this 
memorable utterance, which shows that his intuitive powers 
brought within the range of his vision the philosophies of 
our time. 

" The world is not God, as the Pantheists affirm. It did not 
exist from eternity, as the Peripatetics taught. It was not made 
by Fate and Necessity, as the Stoics said. It did not arise 
from a fortuitous concourse of atoms, as the Epicureans asserted, 
nor from the antagonism of two rival powers, as the Persians and 
Manicheans affirmed ; nor was it made by angels, or by incarnations 
of aeons, as some of the ancient Gnostics held ; nor out of matter 
co-eternal with God, as Hermogenes said; nor by spontaneous 



70 

energy and evolution of self-developing powers, as some have 
affirmed in later days ; but it was created by One, Almighty, 
Eternal, Wise and Good Being — God." 

That which caused the integration of the earth and the 
production of light and heat, was energy. Energy may be defined 
as the power of doing work. There is always a tendency, in every 
transformation of energy, to pass from a higher to a lower form ; 
indeed, all the energy in the universe is passing on to the lowest 
and final form of equally diffused heat. This, the dissipation of 
energy, is by no means well understood. There can be little 
question that the principle concerns the whole theory of thermo- 
electricity, of chemical combination, of allotropy, of phosphores- 
cence, etc., and perhaps, matters of a higher order than common 
physics and chemistry. In astronomy, it shows us the material of 
potential suns in the process of formation, in vigorons youth, in the 
phase of habitation for life, and in every other stage of lingering 
decay. It reveals to us every planet and satellite as formerly a tiny 
sun. It carries forward our thought to a time when the materials of 
present systems shall be component parts of future larger suns and 
planets: Finally, it conducts us to that necessary future, if 
physical laws remain unchanged when the present glittering show 
of life will be dark and cold and dead. It also reminds us of a 
beginning, a state beyond which we are totally unable to penetrate, 
a state produced by other than now visibly acting causes, by that 
transfer of energy from the Unknown of which the universe and 
all material phenomena are memorials. 

The elementary atoms, possessing their own shapes and powers, 
arrange themselves into molecules of manifold combination and 
exceeding variety of vibrations. When raised to incandescence, or 
white beat, and their lights are tested by spectrum analysis, the 
glowing vapors indicate by luminous lines the different elements 
which are in combustion ; thus we are learning of what materials 
the sun and stars are composed. 

Heat and light are the product of a transfer of energy. 
Transfer of energy, through a solid body, is effected simply by 
abration of the solid body ; through air, by setting it in motion at 

own period of vibration; through what we call a vacuum, by 



71 

the magnetic medium — that which Clark Maxwell giyes reason to 
believe is the medium which conveys light and radiant heat. 
Vibrations occurring less frequently than sixteen times in a 
second, produce in us consciousness of a succession of noises. 
Vibrations occurring oftener than 16, but less than 30,000 times 
in a second, produce in us the consciousness of musical notes, 
varying in pitch with the vibrations. Vibrations occurring oftener 
than 30,000, but less than 458,000,000,000,000 times in a second, 
do not affect us through the ears ; but the more rapid ones, acting 
through the nerves of the skin, produce in us the consciousness of 
heat. Vibrations at the rate of 458,000,000,000,000 in a second 
affect us through the eyes, and produce our consciousness of red 
light. As the vibrations increase, corresponding shades of color 
appear, until, at the rate of 720,000,000,000,000 in a second, we 
have the consciousness of violet light Higher rates produce no' 
definite state of consciousness in us. Thus, by one and the same 
external agency — vibrations among particles of matter — are sensa'- 
tions caused, as sound, heat, light 

In sound waves, the particles of air vibrate back and forward 
in the direction travelled by the sound. If by another sound we 
raise such undulations as fill the depressions in the waves of the 
former sound, this adding of sound to sound will cause silence. - 
Light and heat travel at a rate of about 186,000 miles a second; 
the direction of the vibration is across the direction in which they 
move. Two sets of rays may be made so to interfere with one 
another as to be mutually destructive. The two rays of light 
produce darkness, and the two rays of heat cause heat to dis- 
appear. Passing a beam of solar or electric light through a 
prism, we obtain the beautiful colors of the spectrum. At one 
end is the red, at the other the violet, the remaining prismatic 
colors lying between. Red is the hottest of the colors, and 
beyond it are the invisible rays called the heat rays. Violet is 
the coldest, and beyond it are the actinic or chemical rays, also 
invisible. In the three — heat, light, actinism — reside the miracu- 
lous generative energy, which fills the earth with warmth, life and 
splendor. Concerning their nature, whether we call it vibration, or 
heat, or light, or actinism, we affirm nothing and know nothing. 



72 

To a certain extent we can give a mechanical explanation of 
heat and light, as the products presented to our consciousness of 
a perpetual tumbling, or swaying to and fro of the invisible atoms 
of which visible bodies are composed ; but when the explanation 
is connected with the linked purpose of the whole, we are con- 
scious of wisdom and might exceeding all our thought. Light, 
wonderful and mysterious, is but a single point in the vast scheme 
of nature. It is passed through ether by means of transversal 
disturbances or vibrations. Several optical phenomena indicate 
that a disturbance partaking, if such be possible, of the nature of 
compression, would be transmitted with a velocity almost infinitely 
great in comparison with the existing velocity. 

The medium actually used, ether, is specially fitted for the 
transmission of the small waves which constitute light. The 
waves are so small, that from forty to fifty thousand are required 
to occupy the breadth of an inch, and trillions enter the eye 
during a few seconds. The red wave has a length of the 
T¥,ToV.ooTr tn P ai 't of an inch. In one second 458,000,000 of 
vibrations occur. At the line H, in the violet, the length of the 
wave is yo.oVoWth part of an inch, and the number of vibrations 
is 727,000,000 the second. The optic nerve is not conscious of 
the heat in the hot rays, nor of waves larger than the red, nor of 
those smaller than the violet. The eye is only able' to see 
different proportions of the three primaries— red, green, violet ; 
therefore our sight may be fairly considered as rudimentary.' 
Every one of these is capable of innumerable different degrees of 
sensation; one, two or three primary colors. What a manifold 
undeveloped system of signs and images we have within us. 

Again, I would allude to the microscope, and in connection 
with it, to the scientific labors of Ehrenberg and Bailey of West 
Point. 

A few words in respect to the microscope. Its history would 
require a treatise. It is one of the most important instruments in 
modern research. I have seen its development from the ordinary 
magnifying glasses of the shops, to the magnificent lenses of 
Tolles, Spencer, Wales, Miller, Powell and Lealand, Eoss, Beck, 
Hartnach, Zeiss, Gunlach, and other makers of first-class object- 



73 

ives. I have in my collection the finest English, French, German 
and American achromatic lenses, varying in focal distance from 
five inches to the fiftieth of an inch. My best lenses are American. 
Among these are Tolles' tenth, twenty-fifth and fiftieth ; Wales' 
thirtieth ; Miller's eighteenth and fortieth, and Spencer's fourth. 
The latter is the most remarkable lens in my collection of fifty 
objectives. It was made by the younger Spencer. It will resolve 
the Amphipleura Pelucida, Nobert's nineteenth band, which are 
among the most difficult tests of the resolving power of objectives. 
I have not time to speak of microscopical stands and their 
accessories which have been carried to great perfection. The 
microscope, for its perfectability of workmanship ' and for its 
marvelous revelations, rivals the telescope, great as has been the 
improvement of the latter during the past fifty years. 

Although the science of microscopy is of comparatively recent 
origin, it has taken equal rank in value and importance with its 
sister science, telescopy. In practical, every - day life, the 
microscope is of far greater value to society than the telescope. 
Its range, it is true, is limited to the objects of earth. It acquaints 
us with the structure and functions of organism, which are 
altogether too minute to be seen by ordinary and unassisted vision. 
It enables us to revel in a world of beauty. The stranger to the 
microscope can form no conception of the delicate forms and 
picturesque groupings which everywhere abound in the micros- 
copic world. God's marvelous and exquisite handiwork is more 
fully revealed in these tiny microcosms, than in the grosser forms 
with which in ordinary life we are familiar. 

Every child should be taught the use of the microscope. A 
few shillings will put him in possession of an instrument that 
will introduce him into a new world, and make his life richer and 
happier. 

Its practical use in the arts is not to be estimated. In the 
investigations of the physiologist and anatomist, it is indispensable, 
for to what else but to this instrument, does histology owe its 
origin and development ? Some glimpses of organic structure had 
been obtained by the earlier observers, Leenwenhoek, Malpighi, 
Hooke and others; but these, for the most part, consisted of 



74 

unconnected observations, from which it was impossible to educe 
any of the general laws of formation and development. But now, 
through the researches of such earnest and devoted histologists as 
Bichat, Schwann, Eeichert, Vogt, Kolhker, Schleiden, Quekett 
and Carpenter, we are made acquainted with the minute tissues of 
animal and vegetable bodies. The tissues have not only been 
examined in their healthy but also in their abnormal diseased 
condition, so that we have not only a microscopic physiology, but 
a microscopic pathology. 

But there is not time to speak further of the uses of the 
microscope. Of its construction and of those who have dis- 
tinguished themselves in developing this almost perfect instrument, 
we would like to devote an entire paper. A few words in regard 
to the most important part of the microscope — the objectives. In 
the construction of these, lies the maker's skill and the value of 
his reputation. For the last thirty years, the improvement in 
lenses has been marked and progressive. Such is the perfection 
of the immersion lense of to-day, that it seems impossible to add 
anything more to its value. All the mechanical difficulties have 
been overcome. The excellence of a lense depends upon its 
freedom from chromatic and spherical aberration, and upon the 
magnitude of its angular aperture, definition resulting from the 
former and penetration from the latter. The advantages claimed 
for immersion lenses are : greater working distance between the 
object and objective, increase of light and superior definition and 
clearness in the optical image, which image is obtained by much 
simpler illuminating apparatus, and with less manipulative skill than 
that considered indispensable in using high-power dry objectives. 

" It is not difficult to see," says Mayall, " that Amici's system of 
connecting the objective with the cover glass by a film of water, 
very much diminishes the reflection which necessarily takes place 
on the incidence of oblique light when the dry objective is used. 
The limiting angle of refraction in water being about 48 degrees, 
it follows that, whatever is the degree of obliquity in the incident 
light on the object, the immersion objective never has to do with 
rays of greater obliquity than 48 degrees. To this, in great measure, 
is due the greater clearness and precision of the image obtained." 



75 

Great perfection has been reached in the preparation of micros- 
copic objects. The Danes and Germans lead in this department 
The mounting of diatoms by I. D. Moller, of Wedel, is beyond 
all competition. This Diatomaceen Tj^pen -Platte, as he terms it, 
has under cover four hundred diatoms, without counting the 
Eupodiscus Argus, sixteen in number, which he has placed at the 
corners of the four squares in which he has grouped his specimens. 
These he has catalogued and arranged under seventeen orders, 
according to the classification of A. Gurnow, of Vienna, the Epith- 
emieas, Meridioneae, Diatomeaa, Tabellarieae, Surirelleae, Nitzs- 
chieae, Amphipleureae, Cocconeidea?, Achnantheae, Cyrnbelleaae, 
Gomphonemeae, Navieulacere, Isthmeae, Biddulphiea?, Eupodisceae, 
Melosireae and Chaetocereas — ninety-nine genera and three hundred 
and eighteen species — a complete cabinet of diatoms, and all on 
one slide. 

Of injected animal tissues, those of Prof. Tiersch, of the 
University of Leipsic, are of unequaled perfection and beauty. 
There are in my cabinet more than four hundred of them. Edward 
Bicknell, of Cambridge, and I. Bourgogue, of Paris, have done 
admirable work in this line. 

But I wish to speak of Ehrenberg and his microscopic labor. 
Researches in this extremely difficult branch of science began one 
hundred and fifty years before Ehrenberg entered upon his 
successful career. He was born in Dehbisch, Saxonia, April, 
1795. He entered the University of Leipsic in 1815, and received 
his medical diploma in 1819. His thesis was " A New System of 
Moulds," which, on publication, created a sensation in the scientific 
world. He described in this pamphlet 240 different forms of 
microscopical plants, which, before his researches became public, 
were taken as Infusoria. It attracted the attention of the Prussian 
Academy of Science, and in consequence, he was recommended 
for similar investigations which were intended to be made in 
Egypt. The Prussian government sent him, at its expense, to 
that country, and extended its period after two years of his stay 
there, to six years. The result of his labors were published on 
his return in his " Symbolae Physicae ; " " On the Corals of the 
Red Sea," and its Akoliphia, 



76 

Although these coral banks were known to Pliny and Strabo, 
nothing definite conld be said of them ; they were believed to be 
plants which putrify on reaching the surface of the water. 

Ehrenberg classified and described one hundred and fifty 
species of these animalculse, of which the lives of centuries are 
required to increase in a small degree the height of these banks. 

On his return from Egypt, he received from the Prussian 
government the Professorship of the University of Berlin, and a 
few years later, he was invited to accompany Humboldt and Eosc 
to Asia to make investigations in natural history, which he 
accepted. 

They returned in 1839. In 1853 his great works, "The 
Infusoria as Perfect Organism," and "Microgeology," were pub- 
lished, which were illustrated by excellent drawings made by 
himself. These works are now rare and exceedingly costly. 

Microscopical life was the great and wonderful subject which 
he undertook to investigate. For this purpose he travelled in 
Europe, Asia and Africa, corresponded with scientific men, and 
was supplied with infusorial specimens from all parts of the world 
— from the arctic regions as well as from the tropics ; from the 
highest mountains to a depth of 12,000 feet below the surface; 
from the source of rivers as well as from the coasts of lakes. 
These microscopic beings, living and fossil, he examined and 
showed their forms to be infinite. 

Not only existing forms of infusoria were found by him, but 
those also of thousands of years ago. He made forty microscopic 
analyses of each specimen sent him, from which it may be inferred 
that his observations were reliable and highly esteemed. He 
gained the admiration of the scientific world, and was made an 
honorary member of their learned societies. Cuvier said that 
Ehrenberg's labors would make him immortal. Like most of 
great men, he was amiable, humble and unpretending. 

A contemporary of Ehrenberg in microscopical analysis of 
Infusoria, was Prof. J. W. Bailey, of West Point, who was born 
April 29, 1811, in Auburn, Massachussetts. He graduated from 
the Military Academy, July, 1832. In 1839 he was appointed 
Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology, in the same 



77 

Academy, and remained there till his death, in February, 1857. 
His taste for science was very largely developed. Beginning with 
botany and mineralogy, and passing from those to geology, chem- 
istry and microscopy, he traversed a large portion of the field of 
natural science. By his great skill with the pencil, he made 
valuable drawings of vegetable and animal tissues, and later, of 
diatoms, algae, etc. His microscopic and collecting bottles were 
his constant travelling companions. 

His published papers are numerous — more than fifty. They 
are mostly to be found in Silliman's Journal of Science, and in the 
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, except one in the first 
volume of the Transactions of the Association of Geologists and 
Naturalists, which embodied his previous papers on the Infusoria 
of the United States. 

In March, 1839, he sketched a new diatom, to which Ehren- 
berg gave the complimentary name /Stauronema Baileyi. 

His microscopical collection is an honor to American science. 
The slides, five hundred and fifty in number, are arranged in boxes 
in the form of octavos, consisting of twenty -four volumes. There 
are more than three thousand objects fixed upon those slides, much 
of which are described by him. The collection of algae is equally 
complete. It consists of thirty-two portfolios, containing about 
•1,500 specimens — a remarkable collection; few, if any, surpass it. 
Prof. Bailey bequeathed these collections, his books on Botany 
and Microscopy ; his Memoranda, and his Scientific Correspondence, 
to the Boston Society of Natural History. 

Bailey may well be styled the Ehrenberg of America, who has 
made for himself a place by the side of the most eminent micros- - 
eopists and algologists of the Old "World. 

The work of Ehrenberg and Bailey has been taken up by 
others, and a general accumulation of interesting material has been 
made. The study of Diatomacaa has been pursued with most 
fruitful results. 

Prof. H. L. Smith, of Geneva, N. Y., has prepared an alpha- 
betical series of diatoms on glass slides, which he terms " Species 
Typicae Diatomacearum," which has been extended to' several 
hundred — a valuable contribution. 



78 

Dr. Henri Van Heurck published in 1880, "Synopsis des 
Diatomees de Belgique," in two Fascicules, or parts. 

P. T. CI eve and A. Grunow have published from the Stock- 
holm press a work entitled, "Beitrage zur Kessentreiss der Arctls- 
chen Diatomeen," and accompanying it, are five volumes of slides, 
numbering in all 276. These were examined by M. Grunow, of 
Vienna, who is a leading authority in this department of micros- 
copy. These diatoms were selected with great care, and come from 
all parts of the earth. 

Mr. F. Habershaw, of New York, is publishing an exhaustive 
catalogue of this family of Confervoid Algse. 

Beside the use of dictoms for testing the resolving power of 
lenses, Mr. F. A. Nobert of Barth, Pomerania, the late well-known 
optical physicist, whose rulings of fine lines on glass have, for 
many years past, been regarded as marvels of dexterity by the 
scientific world, furnished test-plates for the microscope, particularly 
the plate known as the 19-band plate, on which successive bands 
of lines are ruled of increasing fineness of division from the rate of 
1,000 to the Paris line to 10,000, equal approximately to 112,000 
to the English inch. The frustule of Amphipleura Pelucida has 
92,700 to 92,900 stria to the inch. It was Nobert's opinion that the 
last four bands of his plate could not be resolved. In this he was 
mistaken, for Dr. Woodward of Washington not only resolved the 
19th band, but he also photographed it. It was this photograph 
that convinced Kobert of his error in fixing a limit to microscopic 
vision at the 16th band. 

He then ruled a new plate of twenty bands of lines, varying 
from 1,000 to 2,000 to the Paris line. The lines on the tenth band 
in this latter plate correspond in processes of division to the 19th 
band of the former plate. The makers of objectives have some- 
thing to stimulate them in the future in making lenses that can 
resolve, if possible, the more difficult lines of his new plate. He 
died last year, without revealing the secret of his process of making 
and adjusting the ruling points. It is, therefore, conclusive that 
the limit to microscopic vision depends upon the excellence of the 
objective ! It is a variable factor I 

Kutherford of New York, Eogers of Boston, and Fasoldt of 



79 

Albany, have done fine line ruling on glass and metal, but I have 
no time to speak of them as I would like. 

John James Audubon has made most valuable contributions to 
the study of Natural History. His great works are the "Birds of 
North America," in four volumes, and the "Quadrupeds of North 
America," in three volumes. Cuvier pronounced the former to be 
" the most splendid monuments which art has created in honor of 
Ornithology." Christopher North said of him, "He is the greatest 
artist in his walk that ever lived." As an ornithologist and 
ornithological painter, he never had his equal. It was my fortune, 
forty years ago, to meet him at the seances of the Lyceum of 
Natural History of New York. He was the most remarkable 
man of my acquaintance. He had the keenest and most 
penetrating eyes I have ever seen. 

It is a pleasure to refer to the scientific labors of Louis Agassiz, 
He came to the United States in 1846, at the commencement of 
the great scientific awakening in this country. His European 
reputation had preceded him, and his arrival was hailed with joy. 
He was looked upon as the greatest authority in Paleontology. 
His " Fossil Fishes " furnished a model of study in the investiga- 
tion of the remains of extinct fauna. He was learned in Geology, 
Zoology and Embryology. He was a fascinating lecturer on 
these subjects. He studied the coral reefs of Florida, the fauna 
and natural history of Brazil, S. A. He founded the Museum 
of Natural History in Harvard College, and left as a monument 
of his industry the " Fossil Fishes," published in 1834-44, in 
five vols., 4to, with an atlas of nearly 400 folio plates, in which 
1,000 species were wholly and 700 more partially, figured and 
described. He was the founder of Fossil Ichthyology. In 1839, 
he published his " Natural History of the Freshwater Fish of 
Europe;" also "Descriptions of Echinoderms ;" 1847, "Systeme 
Glaciere;" "Nomenclator Zoologicus," 1 vol., 4to; "Bibliographicae 
Zoologies," 3 vols., 8vo ; "Twelve Lectures on Comparative 
Embryology," 8vo; "Methods of Study in Natural History;" 
" Geological Sketches ;" " Life from the Egg — Twelve Lectures ;"" 



80 

Contributions to the "Natural History of the United States," 4 
vols., 4 to, etc. 

In 1861, he received the Copley Medal for his original 
researches, from the Royal Society of London. He subsequently 
received the Monthyon prize and the Cuvier prize from the 
French Academy ; the Wollaston prize from the Geological Society 
of London, and the Medal of Merit from the King of Prussia. He 
was elected into all the Scientific Societies of Europe and 
America. 

He wrote with great facility in Latin, German, French and 
English. He was an uncompromising defender of the Classifica- 
tion of the Animal Kingdom by Cuvier, and had no patience with 
the doctrine of Evolution. In writing an introduction to " Nott 
and Gliddon's Types of Mankind," he was denounced as an infidel 
by the clergy; but he outlived all those censures, and was regarded 
by the clergy as the defender of 'the true philosophy. He once 
spent a week with me in Buffalo, and complained bitterly of his 
treatment, declaring that he was not an infidel, that his father was 
an orthodox minister, and that he was brought up to believe and 
did believe in the Christian system of religion. 

I wish to record a little incident which occurred at that time. 
Ex-President Fillmore was dining with us one day, when he said 
to Prof. Agassiz, "I wish that you would explain to me what I 
regard as one of the marvelous things of science. I have read 
that by means of a single fossil fish-scale, you actually made a 
drawing of the fish to which it belonged, giving its size and form, 
and that the drawing and scale were deposited in the British 
Museum ; and that years after, the fossil skeleton of that species of 
fish was found and sent to the British Museum, and that the 
drawing could not have been a more exact portrait of the object 
than the one you made. Please tell me how you did it." "There 
is nothing easier," said the Professor. "It was like putting into 
the hands of a skilled engineer or architect, a single stone of an 
arch, and asking him to make a drawing of the arch to which 
it belonged. The angle which the faces of the stone made with 
each other would determine the form and character of the arch." 

Prof. Agassiz was a gentleman of pleasing manners, of great 



81 

personal beauty, and of brilliant conversational powers. He was 
the centre and charm of the social circle. At the meetings of the 
Scientific Association, he is still remembered not more for his 
great learning in the discussion of scientific subjects, than for his 
urbane manners and brilliant conversation at the evening social 
entertainments. 

Prof. Agassiz was born May 28, 1807, in the Parish of Motier, 
Switzerland, and died in Cambridge, Mass., December 14, 1873, 
universally lamented and honored. 

The establishment of the United States Coast Survey under 
Hassler and Bache and Peirce, has been of the greatest utility. 
Stations for tidal observation were established all along the Atlantic 
Gulf and Pacific coasts. Self-registering tide-gauges have been 
brought into extensive use. The character of the ocean currents 
along our coasts have been determined and their causes elicited. 
The exploration of the Gulf-stream commenced in 1844, was 
vigorously prosecuted, its temperature at the several depths deter- 
mined, and its structure and laws for the first time detected. The 
cold wall of water between the Gulf-stream and the shore, as also 
the division of the stream proper into alternate bands of warm and 
cold water, were discovered and mapped out for the benefit of 
navigators and the use of scientists. 

Capt. M. F. Maury's "Physical Geography of the Sea" was a 
valuable contribution to the navigation of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The first reasonable explanation of earthquakes was given by 
Dr. Thomas Young, by suggesting the probability that earthquake 
motions are vibratory, analagous to those of sound. It was rather 
a suggestion than an explanation, for he gave no demonstration. 
This was in 1807. In 1846, Robert Mallet communicated to the 
Royal Irish Academy a paper " On the Dynamics of Earthquakes," 
in which is found this passage : " The transit of a wave or waves 
of elastic compression in any direction, from vertically upwards 
to horizontally, in any azimuth, through the crust and surface of 
the earth, from any centre of impulse or from more than one, and 
which may be attended with sound and tidal waves dependent 



82 

upon the impulse and upon circumstances of position as to sea and 
land." 

Thus was fixed upon an immutable basis the true theory of 
earthquakes. It was incidentally shown in that paper that from 
the observed elements of the movement of the elastic wave of 
shock at certain points — by suitable instruments — the position and 
depth of the focus, or centre of impulse, might be inferred. 

In December, 1857, occurred the great Neapolitan earthquake, 
which desolated a large portion of that kingdom ; and an oppor- 
tunity then arose for practically applying to the problems of find- 
ing the directions of earthquake shock at a given point through 
which it has passed, and ultimately the position and depth of 
focus. Mallet devised apparatus for measuring those movements. 
Seismology has become a branch of exact science. An Observa- 
tory has been established on Mt. Vesuvius by the Italian Govern- 
ment, and self-registering instruments are used under the direction 
of Prof. Luigi Palmieri. 

This seismograph is a self-recording instrument, composed of 
two distinct portions — one for record of horizontal, or rather of 
what are called undulatory shocks ; the other for vertical shocks. 
The instrument is of that class in which the wave movements are 
indicated by the displacement, relative or absolute, of columns of 
mercury in glass tubes. 

The chemist has made great achievements. He has made a 
new nomenclature for his science. He has liquified and solidified 
carbonic acid ; and what is more wonderful still, he has liquified 
oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen ! Out of coal tar, he has obtained 
a most remarkable series of analine colors (1860). He has discov- 
ered a method of preparing a new explosive agent, nitro-glycerine. 
By spectrum analysis, he has discovered new elementary bodies. 
He has studied the molecular condition of the three states of 
matter, the gaseous, the liquid and the solid. He has discovered 
a method of storing electrical energy for mechanical purposes. 

One of the most laborious and successful students of nature 
was the late Prof. John W. Draper, whose scientific career has 



83 

been passed in our midst. A profound thinker, an elegant writer, 
a poet as well as a philosopher, he did much to advance the civiliza- 
tion of the nineteenth century. His great scientific work was the 
■" Chemistry of Plants," published in 1844, an important treatise on 
the forces which produce the organization of plants. He also 
published a paper upon the experimental examination of the 
distribution of heat and of the chemical force in the spectrum ; also 
a treatise on "Human Physiology;" also "History of the 
Intellectual Development of Europe " (1872), in which he under- 
took to show that " social advancement is as completely under the 
control of natural law as is bodily growth," and that " the life of an 
individual is a miniature of the life of a nation." "Thoughts on 
the Future Civil Policy of America." In this work, he emphasized 
the influence of physical conditions, studied the effects of the 
groupings of so many nationalities, and concluded that America 
would become the theatre of a vast conflict of ideas, and that her 
safety required the abolition of the " European method of govern- 
ment through the morals and the adoption of an American method 
of government through the intellect." His ruling ideas reappeared 
in his " History of the American Civil War " (1867-70) ; " History 
of the Conflict between Eeligion and Science " (1878). In 1878 
appeared his " Scientific Memoirs ; or, Experiments Contributing 
to the History of Radiant Energy." • 

His researches in spectrum analysis and in the endosmosis and 
exosmosis of liquids were especially interesting. He was on the 
verge of making the great discovery which has since conferred 
scientific immortality on the German scientist, Kirchkoff, the 
interpretation of the dark lines in the solar spectrum. Draper took 
the first image of the human face by the photographic art. In 
1840, he made the discovery of the curious phenomena of voice 
figures, also known as Moser's images, which are formed when a 
coin is placed upon a polished surface of glass, marble or metal, 
and remain latent until brought out by the condensation of vapor 
by breathing on it. This he showed me in 1843. 

Dr. John Torrey was one of the ablest pioneers of American 
science. April 16, 1873, I read a biographical sketch of him 



84 

before the American Ethnological Society of New York, a few- 
extracts from which I will introduce. 

John Torrey, M. D., LL.D., was born in New York, August 15, 
1796, and died March 10, 1873. He was distinguished for his 
great purity and probity of character, for his sympathy with every 
worthy cause, and for his contributions to human learning. His 
life-pursuits were chemistry, mineralogy and botany. When he 
began his scientific career, these sciences were in their infancy. It 
was his great pleasure to observe their gradual development, and 
to take an active part with the scientific men of both hemispheres 
in raising them to their present elevated position. 

Graduating in Medicine in 1818, he was appointed, six years 
after, Professor of Chemistry, Geology and Mineralogy in the 
Military Academy at West Point. In 1827, he was called to the 
chair of Chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 
this city, which he filled with honor to the college, till 1855. From 
1830 to 1853, he was Professor of Chemistry at Nassau Hall, 
Princeton, and was associated with Joseph Henry, the Alexanders, 
and other distinguished men of that Institution. In 1853, he was 
appointed by the government Chief Assay er in the United States 
Assay Office. at New York. He was also appointed Professor of 
Botany in Columbia College in this city, to which he has left his 
immense collection of plants, which is probably one of the most 
valuable in the world, especially in American botany. 

The Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, of 
which he was one of its founders, show his industry in his early 
scientific course. These are the titles of some of his papers- 
"Description of some new and rare plants from the Eocky 
Mountains," read before the Lyceum, September 22, 1823. 
Another paper on the same subject, read December 11, 1826, in 
which year he was elected President of the Lyceum. " Chemical 
Examination of some Minerals, chiefly from America, by Thomas 
Thompson, notes by John Torrey," read November 5, 1827. 
"Discovery of Vauquelinite, a rare ore of Chromium," read April 
27, 1835. "Monograph of North American Cyperaceas," read 
August 8, 1836. The General Index of Silliman's Journal, first 
series, gives a catalogue of papers from his pen, some of which 



85 

are as follows : " On the Condensation of Carbonic, Sulphurous 
and Chloro-cliromic Acid Cases ;" " On Staurotide ;" " On 
Siderographite ;" " ISTnmber of Indigenous Plants of New York 
State;" "On West Point Minerals,' - &c, &c. 

His more important and valuable contributions are the follow- 
ing : " Catalogue of Plants to be found in a radius of thirty miles 
around New York," published in 1819 ; " Flora of the Northern 
and Middle States," 1824; "Flora of the State of New York," 2 
vols., 1843-4-1 ; " Appendix to Dr. John Lindley's Introduction 
to Botany," 1831. He also edited, with Dr. Asa Gray, "The 
Flora of North America." His more important and valuable 
papers are to be found in the Smithsonian Contributions, and in 
the various government, railway and other explorations. 

Dr. Torrey was an honored member of this Society. By his 
gentle manner and pleasing conversation, he endeared himself to us 
all. He had a magnetism which drew and a sympathy which 
touched all hearts. Associated with De Witt Clinton, Albert 
Gallatin, Samuel L. Mitchell and Gulian C. Verplank in the early 
history of the Society, he has indelibly impressed himself upon 
the scientific thought of the American people. He has opened 
mines of thought and influence which can be wrought in all time 
to come. Let us cherish his memory and emulate his example. 

One of the greatest lights of this century is Charles Robert 
Darwin. I cannot hope in the limited space alloted me to do more 
than allude to the great work of this foremost man of science of 
this or any other age. Born, February 12, 1809, and dying, April 
19, 1882, he finished his renowned scientific career in one of the 
most remarkable periods of human history. It is difficult to know 
which to praise most in this great biologist, his methods or their 
results. He was eminent in observing the habits of plants and 
animals and their relations to each other. He studied the variations 
of species under domestication and in a state of nature. He 
studied hybridity and the effects of hereditary and growth force. 
He did little in comparative anatomy and scarcely anything in 
embryology. His method was the inductive. He relied upon 
facts and not upon theoretical speculations. In 1859 appeared his 



86 

great work on "The Origin of Species." The theory may be thus 
stated : 

Every kind of animal and plant tends to increase in numbers 
in a geometrical progression. 

Every kind of animal and plant transmits a general likeness, 
with individual differences, to its offspring. 

Every individual may present minute variations of any kind 
and in any direction. 

Past time has been practically infinite. 

Every individual has to endure a very severe struggle for 
existence, owing to the tendency to geometrical increase of all 
kinds of animals and plants, while the total animal and vegetable 
population (man and his agency excepted), remains almost 
stationary. 

Thus, every variation of a kind tending to save the life of the 
individual possessing it, or to enable it more surely to propagate 
its kind, will in the long run be preserved, and will transmit its 
favorable peculiarity to some of its offspring, which peculiarity will 
thus become intensified till it reaches the maximum degree of 
utility. On the other hand, individuals presenting unfavorable 
peculiarities will be destroyed. The action of this law of Natural 
Selection may be represented by the expression, "Survival of the 
fittest." 

This conception of Mr. Darwin's is perhaps the most interesting 
theory, in relation to Natural Science, which has been promulgated 
during the present century. In a remarkable manner it groups 
together a vast and varied series of biological facts, and even 
paradoxes, which it appears more or less clearly to explain. By 
this theory of "Natural Selection," light is thrown on the more 
singular facts relating to the geographical distribution of animals 
and plants; on the resemblance between the past and present 
inhabitants of different parts of the earth's surface. 

His second great work, on " The Descent of Man," appeared in 
1871. I have not time to speak of this work as I would like. It 
produced a profound sensation among scholars. It was looked 
upon as positively infidel in its teaching, and was condemned by 
the clergy. It presented evolution in a new phase. It was said to 



87 

teach that man, in the process of evolution, came directly from the 
monkey. Mr. Darwin was caricatured. Pictures of him, with 
caudel attachment, were put upon the market. But time has 
vindicated the reputation of the great scientist. Prejudice has 
yielded to admiration. The clergy are of one accord in their 
readiness to do him honor. His remains were buried in the great 
mausoleum of "Westminster Abbey. His pall-bearers were, James 
E. Lowell, the Duke of Argyle, Lord Derby, Professor Huxley, 
Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir John Lubbock, Alfred E. Wallace, Mr. 
Spottiswood, President of the Eoyal Society, and Canon Farrar. 

The English Church has shown great wisdom in thus honor- 
ing this distinguished scientist. By giving his bones a resting 
place in the most renowned of English sepulchres, they have 
removed a strong and growing prejudice from the minds of that 
large and influential class of scientific men who are doubtless the 
leading thinkers and workers of this generation. It was politic to 
recognize this class of men. The church needs the vitalizing 
forces of thought and action that are outside of itself, to redeem 
it from a species of monasticism which is sure to spring up in a 
life of seclusiveness from the world. By this act of the church, 
the interests of science and religion are conserved. The priest at 
the altar and the scientist in his painstaking investigations, alike 
honor the cause of truth. 

This was once true of the Eoman Catholic Church. If any 
man became distinguished in science, arts or letters, he was 
canonized at death, and admitted into fellowship with the saints. 
So long as this was done the church maintained its supremacy ; 
but when it became non-sympathetic and persecuting, it lost its 
power. 

The English Medical Press and Circular says : " There is but 
one appropriate resting-place for the greatest naturalist in the 
world — the founder of the modern school of biology, the most 
illustrious scientific savant of the century — and that place is 
amidst those who are, by right, regarded as the creators of our 
intellectual superiority — in the national fane at "Westminster." 

"He was'" said Canon Prothero, at Westminster Abbey, "the 
greatest man of science of his day ; but was so entirely a stranger to 



88 

intellectual pride and arrogance, that he stated, with the utmost 
modesty, opinions, of the truth of which he was himself con- 
vinced, but which, he was aware, could not' be universally 
agreeable and acceptable. Surely, in such a man, lived that 
charity which is the very essence of the true spirit of Christ." 

Canon Liddon, in his sermon at St Paul's, observed, "that 
when Professor Darwin's books on the Origin of Species and on 
the Descent of Man appeared, they were largely regarded by 
religious men as containing a theory necessarily hostile to religion. 
A closer study had greatly modified any such impression. It is 
sure that, whether the creative activity of God is manifested 
through catastrophes, as the phrase goes, or in progressive evolu- 
tion, it is still His creative activity, and the really great questions 
beyond remain untouched. The evolutionary process, supposing 
it to exist, must have had a beginning : who began it ? It must 
have had material to work with: who furnished it? It is itself a 
law or system of laws : who enacted them ? Even supposing 
that the theory represents absolute truth, and is not merely a 
provisional way of looking at things incidental to the present 
state of knowledge, these great questions are just as little to be 
decided by physical science now as they were when Moses wrote 
the Pentateuch; but there are apparently three important gaps in 
the evolutionary sequence, which it is well to bear in mind. 
There is the great gap between the highest animal instinct and 
the reflective self-measuring, self -analyzing thought of man. 
There is the greater gap between life and the most organized 
matter. There is the greatest gap of all between matter and 
nothing. At these three points, as far as we can see, the Creative 
Will must have intervened otherwise than by the way of evolu- 
tion out of existing materials — to create mind, to create life, to 
create matter. But, beyond all question, it is our business to 
respect in science, as in other things, every clearly ascertained 
report of the senses ; for every such report represents a fact, and 
a fact is sacred as having its place in the Temple of Universal 
Truth/' 

The Observer says : " We may be asked, of course, what it is, 
after all, that Darwin has done? He has not invented an electric 



light, or a vacuum break, or thrown a viaduct across a valley, or 
tunnelled under a strait, or discovered some marvellous method 
by which to convert brewers' refuse into bread. He has done 
nothing for which he could have taken out a patent, or have 
started a joint stock company with limited liability. But he has 
lived from the first in an air higher than that where money is 
made, and professional chairs are given away. And living thus, 
purely, simply and honestly, he has left his mark indelibly upon 
human thought ; the history of human thought being, for each 
and for all of us, the history of the universe. Peerages and 
decorations are conferred upon men who successfully conduct 
negotiations in the sugar trade, or wage war, with the Martini- 
Henry rifle, against naked savages. Darwin enjoyed no such 
distinction. Certainly he never coveted it. He was never made 
commissioner of anything. His whole life was one continual 
worship of truth for its own sake. He was incapable of jealousy, 
ambition or self-seeking, and — though he himself knew it not — 
the moral lesson of his life is perhaps even more valuable than is the 
grand discovery which he has stamped on the world's history.' 1 '' 

Sir. Charles Lyell, in his Antiquity of Man, quotes a saying 
of Professor Agassiz, that whenever a new and striking fact is 
brought to light in science, people first say "it is not true," then 
it is contrary to religion, and lastly, "that everybody knew it 
before." If a sermon delivered in St. Paul's by Canon Liddon 
may be accepted as evidence, the theory of evolution has passed 
through the two first stages of Agassiz' process, and is already on 
its way to the third. From the extracts from his sermon, it will 
be seen that the eloquent Canon accepts Darwinian theories only 
with reservations. His remarkable words only need to be carried 
to their legitimate issue, to indicate the basis on which the long- 
looked-for reconciliation between science and religion will be 
possible. 

The following extracts from Continental papers may not be out 
of place : 

The Gaulois remarks " that Darwin will remain one of 
the greatest glories of science. No other man has, during the 
second half of this century, exercised a more decisive and fruitful 



90 

influence on the progress of natural science. No one else has so- 
much honored science by the nobility of his character, by the 
primitive simplicity of his life and by his deep and sincere love of 
truth." 

The France observes : " Darwin's work has not been merely 
the exposition of a system ; but, as it were, the production of an 
epic — the greatest power of the genesis of the universe, one of the 
grandest that ever proceeded from a human brain — an epic 
magnificent in its proportions, logical in its deductions and superb 
in its form. Darwin deserves not only a place by the side of 
Leibnitz, Bacon, or Decartes. but is worthy to rank with Homer." 

The Cologne Gazette says: "He was a man of science, who 
made a mark upon his times in a manner unparalleled by any of 
his contemporaries. He compelled every branch of science to 
acknowledge his revolutionizing discoveries. The completion of 
his gigantic system will give abundant occupation to the remotest 
generations ; but the memory of the founder of this prodigious 
scientific structure will remain imperishable to all time." 

"We cannot more fitly close this sketch than by quoting from an 
article in Nature, by Prof. Huxley : 

" In France, in Germany, in Austro-Hungary, in Italy, in the 
United States, writers of all shades of opinion, for once unanimous 
have paid a willing tribute to the worth of our great countryman, 
ignored in life by the official representatives of the kingdom, but 
laid in death among his peers in Westminster Abbey by the will 
of the nation. 

"It is no secret that, outside that domestic group, there are 
many to whom Mr. Darwin's death is a wholly irreparable loss. 
And this not merely because of his wonderfully genial, simple and 
generous nature, his cheerful and animated conversation and the 
infinite variety and accuracy of his information, but because the 
more one knew of him the more he seemed the incorporated ideal 
of a man of science. Acute as were his reasoning powers, vast as 
was his knowledge, marvelous as was his tenacious industry, under 
physical difficulties which would have converted nine men out of 
ten into aimless invalids, it was not these qualities, great as they 
were, which impressed those who were admitted to his intimacy 



91 

with involuntary veneration, but a certain intense and almost 
passionate honesty, by which all his thoughts and actions were 
irradiated as by a central fire. 

" It was this rarest and greatest of endowments which kept his 
vivid imagination and great speculative powers within clue bounds ; 
which compelled him to undertake the prodigious labors of original 
investigation of reading, upon which his published works are 
based; which made him accept criticisms and suggestions from 
anybody and everybody, not only without impatience, but with 
expressions of gratitude sometimes almost comically in excess of 
their value ; which led him to allow neither himself nor others to 
be deceived by phrases, and to spare neither time nor pains in 
order to obtain clear and distinct ideas upon every topic with which 
he occupied himself. 

" One could not converse with Darwin without being reminded 
of Socrates. There was the same desire to find someone wiser 
than himself ; the same belief in the sovereignty of reason ; the 
same ready humor ; the same sympathetic interest in all the ways 
and works of men. But instead of turning away from the 
problems of nature as hopelessly insoluble, our modern philosopher 
devoted his whole life to attacking them in the spirit of Heraclitus 
and of Democritus, with results which are as the substance of 
which their speculations were anticipating shadows. 

" None have fought better and none have been more fortunate 
than Charles Darwin. He found a great truth, trodden under foot, 
reviled by bigots and ridiculed by all the world ; he lived long 
enough to see it, chiefly by his own efforts, inseparably incorporated 
with the common thoughts of men, aud only hated and feared by 
those who would ridicule, but dare not. What shall a man desire 
more than this ? Once more the image of Socrates rises unbidden, 
and the noble peroration of the Apology rings in our ears as if it 
were Charles Darwin's farewell : ' The hour of departure has come, 
and we go our ways — I to die and you to live. Which is the 
better, Grod only knows.' 

The following is the translation of a letter written by the late 
Charles Darwin in answer to an inquiry from a young student at 



92 

Jena, in whom the study of Darwin's books had raised religious 
doubts : 

" Sir — I am very busy, and am an old man in delicate health, 
and have not time to answer your questions fully, even assuming 
that they are capable of being answered at all. Science and 
Christ have nothing to do with each other, except in as far as the 
habit of scientific investigation makes a man cautious about 
accepting any proofs. As far as I am concerned, I do not believe 
that any revelation has ever been made. With regard to a future 
life, every one must draw his own conclusions from vague and 
contradictory probabilities. Wishing you well, I remain, your 
obedient servant, 

" Down, June 5th, 1879. Charles Darwin." 

Mr. Darwin was not regarded as a Christian ; but he had the 
greatest respect for all that was good in Christianity, and was 
great enough to acknowledge it. This is the way in which he 
answered some shallow critics of foreign missionaries : " They 
forget, or will not remember, that human sacrifices, and the power 
of an idolatrous priesthood ; a system of profligacy unparalleled 
in any other part of the world ; infanticide, a consequence of that 
system ; bloody wars, where the conquerors spared neither women 
nor children — that all these have been abolished; and that dis- 
honesty, intemperance and licentiousness have been greatly 
reduced by the introduction of Christianity. In a voyager to 
forget these things is base ingratitude ; for should he chance to be 
at the point of shipwreck on some unknown coast, he will most 
devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary may have 
extended thus far." 

It will perhaps be objected that the theory of descent has 
already been sufficiently established by Darwin. It is true that 
his newly-discovered principle of selection is of the very greatest 
importance, since it solves the riddle as to how that which, is 
useful can arise in a purely mechanical way. Nor can the trans- 
forming influence of direct action, as upheld by Lamarck, be 
called in question, although its extent cannot as yet be estimated 
with any certainty. The secondary modifications which Darwin 



93 

regards as the consequence of a change in some other organ, must 
also be conceded. But are these three factors actually competent 
to explain the complete transformation of one species into another? 
Can they transform more than single characters or groups of 
characters? Can we consider them as the sole causes of the 
regular phenomena of the development of the races of animals 
and plants ? Is there not perhaps an unknown force underlying 
these numberless developmental series as the true motor power — 
a " developmental force," urging species to vary in certain direc- 
tions, and thus calling into existence the chief types and subtypes 
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms? 

The theory of selection by no means leads, as is always 
assumed, to the denial of a teleological Universal Cause and to 
materialism. Mechanism and teleology do not exclude one 
another ; they are rather in mutual agreement. Without teleology 
there could be no mechanism, but only a confusion of crude 
forces ; and without mechanism there could be no teleology, for 
how could the latter otherwise effect its purpose ? 

Yon Hartmann correctly says : " The most complete mechanism 
conceivable is likewise the most completely conceivable teleology." 
We may thus represent the phenomenal universe as such a com- 
pletely conceivable mechanism. With this conception vanish all 
apprehensions that the new views would cause man to lose the 
best he possesses — morality and purely human spiritual culture. 

Let us take our stand boldly on the ground of new knowledge 
and accept the direct consequences thereof, and we shall not be 
obliged to give up either morality or the comforting conviction of 
being part of an harmonious world, as a necessary member capable 
of development and perfection. 

Any other mode of interference by a directive teleolgical power 
in the processes of the universe than by the appointment of the 
forces producing them, is, however, at least to the naturalist, 
inadmissible. We are still far removed from completely under- 
standing the mechanism by means of which the organic world is 
evoked; we still find ourselves at the very beginning of 
knowledge. 



94 

Astronomical science lias been cultivated with remarkable 
success. The Mechanique Celeste, by Pierre Simon Laplace, was 
published in Paris (complete edition) in 1843. The object of the 
author was to reduce all the known phenomena of the system of 
the world to the law of gravity, by strict mathematical principles, 
and to complete the investigations of the motions of the planets, 
satellites and comets begun by Newton in his Principia. This he 
accomplished in a manner deserving the highest praise for its 
symmetry and completeness. A work which will be classed with 
the Almagest of Ptolomy, the DeKevolutionibus Orbium Coeles- 
tium of Copernicus and the Principia of Newton — the greatest 
works on Astronomy. But Laplace was indebted to Leibnitz for 
the instrument by means of which he was able to accomplish his 
immortal work. I refer to the Differential and Integral Calculus 
of Godfrey W. Leibnitz, which was published in the "Leipsic 
Acts," third volume, in 1684, under the following title: "Nova 
Methodus Pro Maximis et xMinimis, itemque tangentibus, qua? 
nee fractas, nee irrationales quantitales moratur et singulare pro 
illis calculi genus, per C. G L" In the brief space of six and a 
half pages is condensed this mighty instrument of mathematical 
analysis. 

Nathaniel Bowditch, of Boston, translated part of the Mechan- 
ique Celeste with a commentary, in four volumes— the last volume, 
in 1839. Additions to the original are so extensive and important 
as to entitle him to be ranked in the first class of writers on the 
higher mathematics. 

M. Legendre, in 1832, wrote Bowditch: "Your work is not 
merely a translation with a commentary; I regard it as a new 
edition, augmented and improved, and such a one as might have 
come from the hands of the author himself." M. Bessel wrote in 
1836: " Through your labors on the Mechanism of the Heavens, 
La Place's work is brought down to our own time, as you add to 
it the studies of geometricians since its first appearance." Lacroix, 
Puissant, Babbage and others wrote similar letters of commen- 
dation. 

Benjamin Peirce, late professor in Harvard College, was a 
prolific writer on mathematics. The most distinguished mathe- 



95 

matical school in this or any other country, is now in session 
at John's Hopkins College, Baltimore, under the direction of 
J. J. Sylvester, aided by Prof. Arthur Caley, of Cambridge, 
England, two of the greatest living mathematicians. In 1858, 
was published Sir William Rowan Hamilton's New Mathematical 
Method, or Calculus of Quaternions. 

To' the Academy of Sciences at Paris we are indebted for 
magnificent editions of the complete works of Laplace and of 
Lagrange. The Government of Norway has given us the 
celebrated Memoirs of Abel ; the Academy of Gcettengen the 
works of Gauss and Rientann ; the Academy of Berlin, editions 
of the works of Steiner and Jacobi ; in England, the collected 
mathematical works of Clifford, MacCullagh, Green, Gregory, 
Leslie Ellis and of Macquorn Rankine ; and in our own country, 
of Benjamin Peirce. The results of mathematical research are 
usually found in the Transactions of Societies, or in periodicals 
specially devoted to mathematical writings. 

Speculation in pure mathematics resembles metaplrysical spec- 
ulation in this, that the whole universe of thought to which it 
refers is so closely interdependent, that a clear-sighted and powerful 
thinker cannot fix his mental vision (however keen his effort after 
concentration may be) on any one region in it, without catching 
glimpses of something that lies beyond, and without discovering, 
more or less dimly, new relations to be examined, and new lines 
of research, which may perhaps have no immediate relevancy to 
the particular enquiry in which he is engaged. And these 
glimpses, if recorded, or even if only half unconsciously indicated, 
in the account which he afterwards gives of his work, are not 
unlikely to suggest a wholly new departure to some kindred spirit 
in a future time. 

One of the most remarkable triumphs of mathematical analysis 
was achieved by two young men in 18-45 and 1846 — John Couch 
Adams of England and Urbain Jean I. Le Verrier of France. 
They formed a design of investigating the irregularities in the 
motion of Uranus, in order to find out whether they might be 
attributed to the action of some unknown planet, and thence, 
if possible, to determine approximately the elements of its orbit. 



96 

The extreme difficulty of the problem may to some extent be 
appreciated when we remember that it is the inverse of the 
ordinary problem of perturbations. Given the positions and 
movements of the planets, the great mathematicians of the last 
century had found it sufficiently difficult to calculate the pertur- 
bations ; but given the perturbations, it was a far harder problem 
to find the mass, the mean distance of the perturbing body, together 
with the eccentricity and plane of its orbit, the direction of its line 
of apses and the position, at a particular moment, of the planet in 
its orbit. Mr. Adams' investigation was based on the observed error 
in longitude of the motion of Uranus. M. Le Terrier's, on the 
theory of Uranus, in which its perturbations were explained by 
the attraction of a planet whose motion and mass were determined 
to be the same as those found by Mr. Adams. 

The problem was the solution of a series of simultaneous 
partial differential equations with nine unknown quantities, 
namely, the mass, mean distance, eccentricity, epoch, and perihelion 
longitude of the working planet, and the corrections to the latter 
four elements of Uranus. The smallness of the perturbations in 
latitude showed that the inclinations and nodes might be neg- 
lected, or, otherwise, the number of unknown quantities would 
have been thirteen. It will be seen that the impossibility of 
solving such a problem by any ordinary mathematical methods 
and even the Planetary Theory, evolved by the genius of Laplace 
and Lagrange, failed in application in consequence of the inverse 
character of the problem. 

These astronomers were unacquainted with each other and 
knew nothing of each other's work. Adams was the first to 
complete his computations, which was in September, 1845. These 
were sent to the Greenwich Observatory for verification ; but, 
unfortunately for Mr. Adams, the Astronomer Royal requested him 
to make some further calculations, with a view of confirming his 
results. While he was engaged on that, M. Le Verrier published 
the results of his calculations on the 1st of June, 1846. As they 
agreed exactly with those of Mr. Adams, Prof. Airy wrote to Prof. 
Challis, of the Cambridge Observatory, requesting him to make a 
careful search with the great Northumberland refractor. But it 



97 

Was too late. M. La Verrier had written to his friend Br. Galle 
of Berlin, to direct his telescope to that point in the heavens which 
his computations had suggested as the probable locality of his 
hypothetical planet. The request was complied with, and on the 
23d of September, 1846, a star of the eighth magnitude was 
discovered, which was not found on any accurate map of the 
heavens, including all the stars of that magnitude. The next 
evening, the telescope was again directed to the star in question, 
and it had swerved from its former position, in a direction and 
with a velocity almost entirely accordant with the theory of the 
French geometor. The planet Neptune was found ! 

The Council of the Royal Society doubted whether their annual 
medal was due to Mr. Adams or to M. Le Terrier ; but, ultimately) 
as there was no precedent in favor of bestowing a double medal, 
they decided on conferring a testimonial on each claimant instead. 
The testimonial reads : " For his researches in the problem of 
inverse perturbations, leading to the discovery of Neptune." 

This was an injustice to Le Verrier, who was fairly entitled to 
the medal, which, in every case, is determined by priority of 
publication. 

In connection with the labors of these astronomers in relation 
to Neptune, it is proper that I call attention to Sears C. Walker, 
formerly of the United States Coast Survey, who determined the 
orbit of Neptune, confirming the identity of Neptune and the star 
of Lalande by an examination of Lalande's manuscripts, in Paris. 
Benjamin Peirce made a searching investigation of the theory and 
redetermination of the perturbations which gave Walker the means 
of obtaining an orbit yet more rigorously exact. And thus by the 
joint labors of these American astronomers, the theory of Neptune 
was placed, within eighteen months after the discovery of the 
planet, on a sure and accurate basis, which completes the verification 
of the true theory of ph} r sical astronomy, and is an addition to our 
knowledge of formal astronomy. To this branch of the subject, 
we have only to add the discovery of the fifth satellite of Saturn, 
raising the whole number to eight, sirnultaneously made by Prof. 
Bond and Mr. Lassell, on the 19th of September, 1848 ; the dis- 
covery of two more satellites to Uranus, by Lassell in 1847; the 



discovery of a satellite to Neptune, by Lassell, in October, 1846 ; 
the late discovery of two satellites to Mars, by Prof. Asaph Hall, 
at Washington, in August, 1877. 

So that round most of the planets revolve satellites in nearly 
circular orbits. Of these the earth has one ; Mars two ; Jupiter 
four; Saturn eight besides a ring; Uranus certainly four; and 
Neptune certainly one. 

The logical consequence of the law of gravitation is, that the 
planets and satellites ought to move in ellipses, with the primary 
in a focus of each, according to Kepler's laws, and perturb one 
another in a certain way, all of which agrees with observation. 
But what its plane should be, which way the planet should move 
in its orbit ; of these the law of gravitation tells us nothing. These 
all depend in each case on the way the body was originally started 
in its course. 

Now, in all the bodies of the solar system, with the exception 
of the satellites of Uranus and Neptune, we observe a very re- 
markable similarity in these respects. The orbits of all the planets 
and satellites are very nearly circles, and nearly in the same plane. 
All the planets and satellites rotate on their axes and revolve in 
the same direction. This seems to point to some common cause 
of their original starting on their courses. Laplace calculated 
that the odds against this being accidental— against, that is, each 
body having had an entirely isolated and separate physical cause 
of its original motion — was many trillions to one. It is, therefore 
practically certain that there must be some one physical cause of 
the original motions of all the bodies of the solar system ; and 
Physical Astronomy is not complete until we have discovered 
what that cause is. 

I present another astronomical problem which for years 
interested Herschel— the determination of the great centre of our 
siderial stratum. By examining the old charts, he found the stars 
not fixed, but perpetually changing their places, and show, as the 
change may be, the accuracy with which modern instruments 
ineasure minute distances, enables the astronomer not only to 
ascertain the rate of motion, but the actual direction in which the 
object is moving. When Herschel found these changes going on, 



99 

the idea occurred to him that probably the change was parallactic, 
and that the sun, with all its planets and comets, was speeding 
through space. He commenced his examinations to see if this 
supposition was correct, when he arrived at a result, the most 
astonishing that was ever unfolded by the mind of man. He 
found that, if he was only permitted to accept the hypothesis that 
the sun was sweeping toward a certain point in the constellation 
Hercules, he could account for a large proportion of the changes of 
the fixed stars all through the heavens. But when other astrono- 
mers gave their attention to this subject and found it too difficult 
for examination, the theory seemed to die away, doubts were cast 
upon its results, and astronomers finally rejected it. At leDgth, it 
was taken up in Russia. Argelander undertook the solution of 
this problem. The grand object was this — to show how it was 
that the grand point in the heavens, toward which the sun is 
moving, was determined. 

Argelander began his investigations by the observation of five 
hundred stars, selected in different points in the heavens, which he 
compared with the observations of the oldest astronomers. Let us 
suppose, for the sake of illustration, that he finds the star selected 
for observation, to-night, was located in a certain point in the 
heavens one hundred years previous to his time; and that, at the 
time he makes his observation, it is located here in another point 
in the heavens. Now, the distance which the two points are 
separated from each other being known, it is very easy to ascertain 
the star's rate of motion. Now then, having accomplished this 
with reference to every one of these stars, he finds them all 
converging to a certain part of the heavens, as if that were 
the point toward which the sun is moving. It must be that the 
line of direction in which the star moves makes an angle with the 
meridian, which is an observed angle. It is observed because it is 
formed by the joining of two points, occupied by the star, when 
observed by the ancient and modern astronomers. Now, inasmuch 
as all these appeared to point at some spot toward which the sun 
is moving, he adopted a point and said, "Now, if the sun is going 
to that point, I can predict the line of direction in which every star 
appears to move." He compared his computed angles with his 



100 

observed ones in every instance ; and, if he finds any discrepancy 
between them, he assumes a new point. And thus he continued 
to take one point after another, until all the conditions of the 
problem were fulfilled, and he said, " There is the point." 

The subject was then taken up by Struve, son of the celebrated 
astronomer who was in charge of the great observatory at Pulkowa. 
He wished to know the swiftness of the sun's motions through 
space. In demonstration of his wonderful discoveries, and as 
a result, he shows that the sun is actually moving at the rate of 
200,000 miles per hour. These two points having been deter- 
mined, may not the sun be circulating around some grand central 
orb? May not the fixed stars be whirling their endless cycles 
round some grand point, the centre of the whole? 

This was the problem that Maedler, the successor of Struve, 
undertook to solve. Is there a grand central orb? Is there a 
stupendous Globe occupying the centre of our Island Universe, 
having the same proportion to the whole mass that the sun does 
to our system. We can look out into space in every direction — 
we can examine the stars and their motions — we can, therefore, 
detect such a region — we can detect the exact point where it 
is located, if any such motions as we have described exist — and 
the conclusion is that no such globe exists. 

The next question is this : Is there no centre of gravity about 
which all the mighty host of suns, stars and comets circulate 
obedient to its laws. His answer was that there is ; and it was to 
the solution of this problem that Maedler gave the energies of his 
intellect. After long years of labor, after he had almost exhausted 
the capabilities of analysis, after bringing to bear upon the problem 
all the mighty influences of science and art, after ranging from 
point to point in the heavens which he was compelled successively 
to abandon, he turned his attention to the examination of the 
beautiful group of stars called the Pleiades. After watching their 
movements until he had computed the rates of motion of the 
principal stars in this group, and the direction in which they were 
journeying, he found to his great delight that they fulfilled all the 
conditions of the problem, and the grand result was attained. 
The truth came irresistibly upon his mind, that there is the 



101 

centre, and that is the point about which all the bright hosts of 
heaven are sweeping, in periods which actually stun the human 
mind. Maedler has computed the periodic time of our own sun, 
which gives this astonishing result. It takes our sun 218,000,000 
of years to complete its stupendous cycle. 

This was the result to which Maedler's studies brought him. 
But, unfortunately, there is no proof that this view is correct. No 
other astronomer at the present time holds to this doctrine of 
Maedler. It is known that a great many stars are collected into 
clusters; but there is no evidence that the stars of these clusters 
revolve in regular orbits, or that the clusters themselves have any 
regular motion around a common centre. 

But still, in addition to all the motions of the earth, its diurnal 
rotation, its annual revolution round the sun, the rythmical 
swaying of its axis, proved by the precession of the equinoxes, the 
mutation or more rapid swaying which is caused by the attraction 
of the moon, there is an enormous translating movement which is 
dragging it through endless tracks of space in the train of the sun. 
Not many years ago, as I have said, this motion was entirely 
unknown to astronomers, and yet it is going on with an inconceiv- 
able rapidity — a rapidity more than double that of the course of 
the planet round its central luminary. In one second of time the 
earth moves about forty-four miles toward the point of the heavens 
where we find the constellation of Hercules. During one year 
only, she travels 1382 millions of miles in this- direction (Bessel). 
Does this enormous distance- — which light itself would take two 
hours and five minutes in traversing — form part of an ellipse 
described by the whole planetary system round some centre of 
attraction — a centre which Maedler has fancied that he had 
discovered in Alcyone, in the midst of the Pleiades? Or is it, as- 
Cams supposes (Natur und Idee), a portion of an orbit which has 
for its focus (like the curves of multiple stars) a centre of gravity 
common to many stars — nothing but a mathematical point ever- 
lastingly changing in infinite space? We cannot tell ; but certainly 
this movement of the globe we live on, and its progress through 
the unfathomable depths of space, must give us an idea of the 
immense variety of the motions which make the heavenly bodies 



102 

gyrate like particles of dust in a whirlwind. Our own little earth 
itself is carried on from space to space, and never closes the cycle 
of its revolutions. Ever since the time when its particles were 
first grouped together, it has been describing in space the infinite 
spiral of its ellipses, and thus will go on turning and oscillating in 
ether until the moment when it will exist no longer as an 
independent planet. For the earth, too, must have an end ; like 
every other body in the universe, it comes into existence and lives 
only to die when its time comes. Already its annual motion of 
rotation is diminishing in speed (Meyer, Joule, Tyndall, Adams, 
Delaunay) ; certainly, this slackening of pace is not very observa- 
ble, since no astronomer from Hipparchus to Laplace has yet 
exactly defined it. But unless some cosmical force acting in a 
contrary direction compensates for the loss of speed caused by the 
friction of the tides against the bed and shore of the ocean, the 
impetus of our planet will every century diminish. After various 
catastrophes which it is impossible to foresee, the earth will 
eventually completely change its course of action and lose its 
independent existence, either uniting itself with other planetary 
bodies, or breaking up into fragments ; or it will perhaps terminate 
its course by falling like a mere areolite upon the surface of the 
sun. 

In the winter of 1877, I visited Padre Secchi at his Observatory 
in Home, and saw the instruments with which he had done so 
much for astronomy. He had two refractors— one of 6 inch and 
the other of 9£ inch aperture. With the former, he had made all 
his observations upon the sun's disc; and, with the latter, his 
spectroscopical examinations of some five hundred stars. He used 
Eutherford's diffraction grating, of which he spoke in the highest 
terms of praise. 

I showed him Eaton's prism for direct light made of heavy glass 
and of great dispersive power, ne took it into a dark room and 
let the sunlight through a slit in the shutter fall upon the prism, 
and the dark lines of the spectrum stood out in bold relief. He 
had never seen the like. So pleased was he with the prism, I gave 
it to him. On my return to the city, he had it mounted and obtained 
spectra of Sirius, Alpha Orionis. The dispersion was wonderful, he 



103 

said, too great for spectroscopic work on faint bodies. He gave me 
his catalogue of the stars and drawings of his telescope. February 
10th, he called and invited me to visit the observatory and meet 
Dom Pedro of Brazil. I went and saw the spectrum of Sirius, 
across which were two dark lines in the blue and one in the 
yellow : saw the spectrum of Beltegeuse, in which thei'e were a 
great many lines. 

The study of the double and multiple stars has occupied the 
attention of many astronomers. In 1861, Otto Struve began his 
observations, and from year to year made careful and systematic 
measures of the most important double stars, which have been 
published in two volumes. 

With an 8 foot equatorial, Admiral Smyth measured 680 stars 
between' 1830 and 1843, the results of which were published in 
1844 ; and, in 1860, his " Speculum Hartwellianum," containing 
later measures, was published. 

Maedler, with the Dorpat refractor, measured a large number of 
double stars between 1834 and 1845, and published the results in 
1847 in an elaborate work. 

Dawes published his great catalogue of double stars in 1867. 
Powell and Jacob, at Madras ; Dembouski, at Naples ; Secchi, at 
Eome ; Duner, at the Lund Observatory ; Stone, at the Cincinnati 
Observatory ; Burnham, of Chicago ; Dr. Peters, Director of the 
Litchfield Observatory of Hamilton College, and many others, 
have published catalogues of these interesting objects. The siderial 
charts of Peters, on which he has labored for a period of twenty- 
two years, will be of immense value to future astronomers. His 
maps include many thousands of telescopic stars — stars which are 
found on no other charts — stars of the fourteenth magnitude. 

Many other obser/ers in this department of astronomy might 
be mentioned, but time fails. 

These observations could not have been made, had it not been 
for the wonderful improvement in the construction of refracting 
telescopes. Among the most noted of these instruments may be 
mentioned, the Dorpat, made by Fraunhofer; Dawes' Equatorial, 
by Alvin Clark & Sons, aperture 8£ inches; Northumberland 
Equatorial Cambridge, objective by Cauchoix, aperture 11^ inches, 



104 

Observer, Challis' ; Cambridge (U. S.) same as Poulkowa refractor, 
aperture 15 inches, Observer Pickering ; Greenwich, object glass 
by Merz & Son, has an aperture 12£ inches ; Cincinnati, begun by 
Fraunhofer, and finished by Merz & Mahler, aperture 11 inches; 
Chicago, Dearborn Observatory, refractor made by Alvin Clark, 
aperture 18J inches. The great refractor at Washington, the 
glass by Chance, makers Alvin Clark & Sons, aperture 26 inches, 
focal length 390 inches. Observers, Newcomb, Hall and Holder. 
It was with this magnificent refractor that Prof. Asaph Hall 
discovered the moons of Mars. On the 11th of August, 1877 
he found the outer satellite; on the 17th he saw it again, and 
soon after the inner one came out. 

The first college astronomical observatory in this country was 
established at Williams College in 1838, under the direction of 
Prof. Albert Hopkins. Another was erected at Hudson, Ohio, in 
1839. In 1840, an observatory was added to Girard College in 
Philadelphia. In 1843, an observatory was commenced at Cin- 
cinnati by Prof. 0. M. Mitchell, and completed in 1845. In 1844, 
the Cambridge Observatory at Harvard University was erected on 
Summer Hill. 

Since that time, almost every college of any importance has 
its observatory and astronomical instruments. 

The Litchfield Observatory of Hamilton College is under the 
direction of Prof. C. H. R Peters, who is one of the most success- 
ful discoverers of the smaller planets. 

It is remarkable that the Greenwich Observatory has never, 
we believe, announced a single discovery of a planet, nor indeed 
proposed such an object for its great work. It is the faithful, 
exact and long continued series of observations of the moon and 
the larger planets and fixed stars, made by this observatory, 
which, in connection with those of other observations, has already 
done so much for the great purposes of navigation. 

Dr. B. A. Gould, who organized the Dudley Observatory at 
Albany, founded at Cordova, under the auspices of the Argentine 
Eepublic, a splendidly equipped observatory. In his " Uranometry 
of the Southern Heavens," he has -included all stars visible to the 
naked eye, the magnitude of each star being determined by not 



105 

less than four independent observations. His great telescopic 
work has been done with Tolles 5-inch telescope. In speaking of 
the star of Eta Argus, he says : " In the field of my small Tolles' 
telescope of 5-inch aperture and 35-inch focal length, it is a con- 
spicuous object, and prominent by its ruddy color among the 
cluster of which it forms a part." The magnificence of the 
milky way in this vicinity is indescribable, surpassing the Pleiades 
or the Prsesepe in richness, and exhibiting numerous huge clusters, 
the sight of which, through the Tolles telescope, evokes exclama- 
tions of astonishment and delight from every beholder. 

There are several valuable private observatories in this State 
where admirable telescopic work has been done. The oldest and 
not the least conspicuous is that of Louis M. Kutherford, Esq., of New 
York, who was among the very first to prosecute the subject of 
celestial photograph}'. With a specially con structed photographic 
objective, he took, March 6, 1863, remarkably fine negatives of the 
moon, the best ever taken. His ruling upon glass and speculum 
metal for the diffraction of lioht has been turned to excellent 
account in spectroscopic analysis of the stars and nebulae. 

Dr. Henry Draper, of the University of New York, has a 
private observatory at Hastings on the Hudson, and has been 
successful in taking photographs of stellar and planetary spectra. 
He has photographed the spectra of Venus, Mars and Jupiter, 
and no difference can be detected between the spectra of these 
planets and the spectrum of the sun. At Rawlins, Wyoming, July 
29, 1878, he photographed the total eclipse of the sun, using a 
Rutherford grating two inches square and a camera of large 
aperture, and obtaining a photograph of the spectrum of the 
Corona. The main part of the work of his party was to make 
photographic, spectroscopic and thermo-electric observations, and 
they were quite successful. He also photographed the comet of 
1881. A photograph of its spectrum shows elements and colors 
which the eye cannot discern in the visual spectrum. The tail of 
the comet shows a continuous spectrum, indicating that the tail is 
composed of solid or liquid substances. 

Dr. Draper was the first to obtain photographs of the fixed 
lines in the spectra of the stars — the first to get a photograph of 



106 

the great Nebula in Orion. He took a photograph of the moon 
near its third quarter of nearly four feet in diameter. The moon 
is a difficult object to photograph, because she travels in an hour 
over her own diameter. She don't stand still, and must be taken 
on the wing. 

It must be borne in mind that Draper has made his spectro- 
scopic and photographic discoveries in the celestial bodies by 
means of telescopes made with his own hands. He made two 
silvered glass reflectors, which were equatorially mounted — the first 
of 15£ inches aperture, the second 28 inches aperture —marvels of 
successful mechanism for an amateur instrument-maker. 

Much is to be expected in the future development of the 
physical constitution of the universe from this brilliant and hard 
working young astronomer. 

Another laborious and successful observer is Prof. Lewis Swift, 
of Rochester, who has done excellent work. 

When we graduated, only four of the small planets had been 
discovered. The first, "Ceres," by Piazzi, in 1801. Now the 
number has been increased to two hundred and twenty ! Of these, 
Peters of Hamilton College has discovered forty ! 

The number of observatories at present known in the world, is 
118 — 84 are in Europe, 2 in Asia, 2 in Africa, 27 in America, 
and three in Oceanica. Of the European observatories, Prussia has 
29 ; Russia, 19 ; England, 14 ; Italy, 9 ; Austria, 8 ; France, 6 ; 
Switzerland, 4, Sweden, 3; Spain, Portugal, Holland and 
Norway, each possesses two, while there is only one in Greece 
Belgium and Denmark. The most ancient observatory in Europe 
and in the world, is that of Leyden, having been founded in 1632 ; 
then comes Copenhagen, founded in 1637; Paris, in 1667, and 
Greenwich, in 1675. The Moscow Observatory is the oldest in 
Russia, dating from 1750; Prussia, now- the richest country in the 
world in astronomical observatories, had none before 1805. 

In 1872, Signor Schiaparelli received the gold medal of the 
London Astronomical Society for his contributions to Meteoric 
Astronomy. The theories of Schiaparelli are directly based on 
observations and mathematical calculations which bring them un- 
der the domain of the recognized logic of mathematical probability. 



107 

I can only state the general results, which are that the meteors 
which we see every year more or less abundantly, and which 
always appear to come from the same point in the heavens, are 
there and thus visible because they form part of an eccentric ellip- 
tical zone of meteoric bodies which girdle the domain of the sun ; 
and that our earth, in the course of its annual journey round the 
sun, crosses and plunges more or less deeply into this ellipse of 
small attendant bodies, which are supposed to be moving in regu- 
lar orbits around the sun. 

Schiaparelli has compared the position, the direction, and the 
velocity of motion of the August meteors with the orbit of the 
great comet of 1862, and infers that there is a close connection be- 
tween them, so close that the meteors may be regarded as a sort of 
trail which the comet has left behind. He does not exactly say 
that they are detached vertebra? of the comet's tail, but suggests 
the possibility of their original connection with its head. 

Similar observations have been made upon the November 
meteoric showers, which by similar reasoning are associated with 
another comet; and further yet, it is assumed upon analogy 
that other recognised meteor systems, amounting to nearly two 
hundred in number, are in like manner associated with other 
comets. 

If these theories are sound, our diagrams and mental pictures 
of the solar system must be materially modified. Besides the cen- 
tral sun, the eight planets and the asteroids moving in their nearly 
circular orbits, and some eccentric comets travelling in long ellipses, 
we must add a countless multitude of small bodies clustered in 
elliptical rings, all travelling together in the path marked by their 
containing girdle, and following the lead of a steaming, vaporous 
monster, their parent comet. 

We must count such comets, and such rings filled with attend- 
ant fragments, not merely by tens or hundreds, but by thousands 
and tens of thousands, even by millions ; the path of the earth 
being but a thread in space, and yet a hundred or two are strung 
upon it. 

In 1851, Foucault made an experiment in the dome of the 
Pantheon, at Paris, to show -the actual rotation of the earth. He 



108 

suspended a heavy spherical weight by a long thin wire, and set it 
swinging as a pendulum. There is no reason why it should 
change the direction in which it swings ; but, if the earth rotates, 
carrying the room in which the pendulum swings round with it, 
the position of the room will change with respect to the constant 
direction in which the pendulum swings ; and to an observer in 
the room who will be carried round with it, the direction in which 
the pendulum swings will appear to change, exactly as it might be 
if the earth rotated once a day. 

It is generally understood that, at the pole of the earth, the 
plane of vibration of a free pendulum remaining constant must 
make an angle with the movable meridian of the place, which 
angle, in consequence of the rotation of the earth on its axis, 
continually increases, until it amounts to 360 degrees at the end of 
twenty-four hours ; that is to say, that after a lapse of one day, the 
plane of vibration returns to its original position. At the equator, 
the plane of vibration remains always parallel to the meridian ; 
while at all other points of the earth's surface, it makes an angle 
with the meridian which depends upon the latitude of the place ; 
and, at the end of twenty -four hours, has not yet amounted to 360 
degrees. 

The speculations of the French philosopher, Adhemer, based 
on the precession of the equinoxes and the movement of the 
apsides, are very curious. If the movement of the earth is com- 
pared with that of the stars, it requires the lapse of 25,000 years 
to bring the equinox to correspond with the same point in space it 
now occupies ; but the orbit itself being movable, this period is 
reduced to about 21,000 years, which is called the Great Year, being 
the measure or time before the winter solstice will again exactly 
coincide with the perihelion, and the summer solstice with the 
aphelion, and before the seasons will again harmonize with the 
same points of the terrestrial orbit. 

As the earth between the vernal and autumnal equinox 
traverses a longer circuit than during the other half of the year, 
and also experiences an accelerated movement as it draws near the 
sun, the result is that the northern summer is longer than the 
southern summer by about eight days ; but, after the lapse of 



109 

10,500 years, these conditions will be reversed. It was in the year 
12-18, according to Adhemer, that the great northern summer 
culminated, since which time it has continued to decrease, and that 
decrease will go on until the year 11,748, when it will have 
attained its maximum. 

This compound movement, the precession of the equinoxes and 
the shifting of the line of the apsides, it is claimed, exerts a marked 
influence in the distribution of the earth's temperature. 

Mr. Croll, an English physicist, has prepared tables, showing 
the amount of the earth's eccentricity for the period of three 
million of years, at intervals of 10,000 years for a greater 
portion of that time, and 50,000 years for the remainder. He 
infers that a glacial period occurs when the eccentricity of the 
earth's orbit is at a maximum, and the solstices fall when the 
earth is in perihelio and in aphelio ; and that only one hemisphere 
has a glacial climate at the same time, which occurs when the 
winter is in Aphelio. 

Ohm's law of electrical resistance, showing the relation 
between the current and the electromotive force in a wire or unit of 
resistance, is of great interest. The exact measure in metres of the 
column of pure mercury of one square millimetre cross-section at 
0° centegrade, gives what is known as the ohm. Different values 
have been obtained. Kohlrausch, 1.0593; Kayleigh, 1.0624; 
Glazebrook, 1,0624; Weber, 1,0552; Eowland, 1.0572: Weber and 
Zollner, 1.0552 ; and Dorlin, 1,0546. Mr. F. Weber, of Zurich, 
gave, at a late Congress held in Paris, the figures 1.0471 as the 
result of his work, and it was there resolved that the experimentors 
be recommended to compai'e (1) their standards of resistance with 
that produced by the French Government; (2) to compare the 
induction lists by the Kohlrausch wire circuit method, and (3) to 
give all attention to the Laurens method. Finally, it was urged 
that all governments should support, as far as possible, what 
national experiments were made for the determination of the ohm. 

The doctrine of the conservation of energy will always mark the 
nineteenth century in the history of discovery, and is undoubtedly 
one of the greatest and grandest generalizations of modern science. 

It is well known that all of the physical forces, such as heat, 



110 

light, electricity, or magnetism, are capable of being transformed 
into each other, and also that each of them can be made to perform 
mechanical work bj the communication of motion to matter. All 
these various manifestations of force are, however, only modes or 
conditions of one universal energjr, which underlies all the chang- 
ing phenomena of the universe. This energy may be active or 
passive, it may be diffused or concentrated, it may assume unnum- 
bered forms and guises, but it is one in its essential nature, and the 
sum of all the various forms of energy in the universe, when meas- 
ured by their capacity to do work, is always a constant quantity. 

It is in the ceaseless transmutation of energy from one form to 
another that the myriad phenomena of the universe' are manifested, 
and in their fleeting passage we obtain the power which can drive 
our machines and do our work. 

Energy may be defined as the power to do work, quite inde- 
pendent of the special form or mode in which it may be stored, or 
the character of the manifestation which it will exhibit during the 
performance of the work. Whenever energy changes its condi- 
tions it always does work, and whenever work is done, whether it 
is visible or invisible to the senses, an equivalent amount of energy 
disappears. 

Stored energy is always spoken of as potential energy. When 
energy is liberated, and performing work, it is called kinetic, or 
actual energy, because the force is no longer stored, but in the act 
of being expended on work. These two states of energy, although 
they are widely different in their character, are easily changed from 
one state into the other, and all the phenomena of the physical 
universe are really the result of the change which is continually in 
operation. 

A. Energy of Mass — Gravitation. 

I. Visible potential energy — A raised weight. 
II. Visible kinetic energy — A falling weight. 
III. Visible potential and kinetic energy — A swinging, or 
vibrating pendulum. 

B. Energy op Molecules, or Molecular Separation. 

IV Invisible potential energy — Any confined volume of 
steam. 



Ill 

V. Visible kinetic energy — Condensing steam, or the recoil 
of a bent spring. 

C. Thermo-Energy, or Absorbed Heat. 

VI. Invisible potential energy — Latent beat. 
VII. Visible potential energy — Expansion of bodies when 
heated which can do work on cooling. 

D. Electrical Energy, or Energy of Electrical Separa- 

tion. 

VIII. Invisible potential energy — A charged Leyden jar with 
interrupted circuit. 
IX. Visible kinetic energy — -An electric current fusing a 
wire, or driving an electro-motor. 

E. Chemical Energy, or Atomic Separation. 

X. Invisible potential energy — A mass of gunpowder. 
XI. Visible kinetic energy — The burning of fuel, attended 
by light and heat. 

F. Eadiant Energy. 

XII. Invisible potential energy — Any heated or incondescent 
body. 
XIII. Visible potential energy — A ray of light. 

Although the two states of energy — potential and kinetic — are 
mutually interchangeable, so that potential energy of mass may be 
changed into kinetic energy of motion of the mass, still there is a 
physical limit to this change, because kinetic energy may be ex- 
pended in the performance of molecular work where the motions 
are too small to be recovered again as potential energy of mass. It 
has been experimentally proved — and in strict accordance with 
theory — that although it is quite possible to change all the stored 
energy of mass of matter, when liberated by its motion, into heat, 
it is not possible to reverse the process and change all the heat 
back again into molecular motion. There is always a certain por- 
tion of the heat frittered away, disappearing in the performance of 



112 

work amongst the molecules of matter, and which cannot be recov- 
ered bj any means at present known to science. 

The gradual concentration of the matter in the visible uni- 
verse, which is evident in the past history of our solar system, and 
in the star clusters and nebulae in the far distant regions of space> 
is therefore slowly changing all the potential energy which was 
originally present in the universe into the kinetic form. This pro- 
cess undoubtedly points to an end to all its phenomena, unless 
there is some higher and exterior law in operation with which we 
are not at present acquainted. The ultimate form to which the 
kinetic energy of the universe tends is diffused heat, and when this 
long-protracted diffusion will have been accomplished, so that all 
matter will possess a uniform temperature, all motion and all life 
wdl cease. Millions of years, countless as the sand upon the sea- 
shore, will roll away before this end will come, but come it will, as 
surely as a clock will run clown if no exterior power raise the fallen 
weis;ht. 

We may also point out that this same law also indicates a begin- 
ning, because the sum of the potential and kinetic energy being a 
constant and finite quantity, the phenomena of the universe cannot 
have been exhibited from all eternity, or else the potential energy 
would all have assumed the kinetic form. How distant the time 
of the beginning may be, no computation can determine any more 
than it can determine the time of the end ; but that there has been 
a beginning, and that there will be an end, to the existing condi- 
tion of the universe, is as certain a deduction from the present 
knowledge of physical causes, as anyknowledge which we possess. 

The dynamical theory of matter opens a wide field for specula- 
tion. It is sufficient to say that we are probably only on the 
threshold of our knowledge of the physical universe and its lawsi 
and that each step which we take, while it may widen our know- 
ledge, only reveals a still wider region, into which it is difficult, 
but probably not impossible, to enter. Guided by the laws which 
have been ascertained from rigid observation and experiments, we 
may rest satisfied that each step forward will be followed by 
increased power on the part of man to control the forces and reac- 
tions of the material world, so that in the future, as in the past, 



113 

the progress of science will be at once a cause and a proof of an 
advance in civilization, and will thus confer measureless benefits 
on mankind at large. 

In concluding my remarks upon the scientific progress of the 
half century, I would call attention to the discovery of the two 
most comprehensive generalizations in physics and biology — the 
law of the conservation of energy and the law of natural selection. 
These laws furnish the most advanced scientific explanations of the 
physical universe. 

Herbert Spencer, in his new system of evolution-philosophy, 
has given the most complete and philosophic statement of the 
scientific faith ; and he has given it with special references to the 
above-named highest laws. 

On the question of the origin and future dissolution of our 
earth and solar system, the most eminent physicists are in the 
main agreed, however much they may differ on such philosophical 
questions as the immortality of the soul or the existence of God. 
They agree that a widely dispersed nebulous matter, closing to- 
gether under gravitation, awoke the sun's fires and produced the 
earth and planets originally at molten heat. They are further 
agreed in accepting Sir Wm. Thompson's doctrine of the dissipa- 
tion of energy, with the consequent further dissolution of all the 
systems of the universe. There is a consensus of opinion amongst 
the foremost physicists as to the remote physical beginning and far- 
off end of the material universe, though they differ widely as to the 
nature and destiny of the human soul. 

I regret that time fails me to complete in outline a general 
survey of what has taken place in the great circle of human 
enterprise during this semi-centennial. There are many subjects 
to which no allusion has been made, as pre-historic archaeology, 
which has dispelled the mist of ages and made the silent past to 
speak — which has opened up a long vista through distant historic 
periods to the remotest and darkest ages, and has been defined as 
the history of men and things which have no history. The 
decipherment of hieroglyphics by Champollion ; light thrown upon 
the ancient Egyptian religion and civilization by Lepsius, Birch, 
Hincks, Brugsch, Mariette, and others ; the publication of Egyptian 



114 

texts, as the collections of Champollion, Rosellini, Burton's 
"'Excerpta Hieroglyphica," Sharpe's "Egyptian Inscriptions," the 
magnificent " Denkmaeler " of Lepsius, the " Hieratic Papyri " of 
the British Museum, and many other splendid publications ; 
" "Nlnevak and Its Palaces," discoveries of Botta, Layard, George 
Sniith, and others, " Classical Antiquities; " Fellow's "Discoveries 
in Lycia;" Schliemann's "Troy and Its Remains;" Schliemann's 
" Mycenae and Tiryns ;" Dennis's " Cities and Countries of Etruria," 
etc., etc. Mines of wealth in Oriental literature have been opened by 
such scholars as Max Muller and Prof. Whitney, in the " Sanscrit," 
aiid Dr. James Legge, in " Chinese Classics." Bopp has written his 
" Comparative Grammar ;" ISTorris, his "Assyrian Dictionary;" 
Renfey, his "Sanscrit and English Dictionaiy ;" Winslow, his 
"Tamil and English Dictionary;" Medhurs,t his "Chinese Dic- 
tionary." 

Such works as the "Rig-Veda-Sanhita," edited by Max Muller, 
in 6 vols., 4mo. ; "History of Assurbanipal," and "History of 
Sennacharib " — both translated from Cuneiform inscriptions into 
English by George Smith, are highly creditable to modern 
scholarship. 

I find no time for ethnology, social science, political economy, 
and the fine arts, the study of which has become so universal. I 
may have given unwarranted consideration to some of the topics 
which have come under review, which is probably due to the 
interest I have for many years taken in them. But there never 
was such an intellectual awakening as we have witnessed. 

The steamship and the electric cable have bridged the Atlantic. 
The most intimate relations are springing up between people of 
different nationalities. The great principles of international law 
are studied. The arbitrament of disputes between nations will be 
settled in the future by an appeal to reason rather than the sword. 
England and the United States — one in origin, language, religion 
and civilization — are vieing with each other in kindly acts of 
comity. . The royal purple is not soiled by contact with the 
coarser fabrics of our American looms. Princess Louise, traversing 
our vast continent, does not disdain to meet on friendly terms her 
transatlantic cousins. Westminster Abbey, consecrated to the 



115 

sepulture of the renowned men of England, has admitted to its 
sacred precincts America's greatest poet! The marble bearing the 
inscription Henry "Wadsworth Longfellow, has been placed in 
the Poets' Corner beside those of William Shakespeare and John 
Milton ! All hail to English magnanimity ! The Universities of 
Oxford and Cambridge are open to American students. England's 
art accumulations for centuries, at South Kensington and the 
British Museum, are open for the inspection and study of our 
citizens. Her historians and scholars, her artists, theologians and 
philosophers, visit our cities and speak in our lecture rooms and 
pulpits. The bonds which bind the -two nations are daily strength- 
ening. Together, they form the mightiest power on earth, and 
constitute the advancing army of the world's civilization. 

But our generation has scarcely done more than enter the vesti- 
bule oi the temple of knowledge! A grander future awaits the 
generations which are to follow ! And yet how little, after all, can 
man in his greatest achievements hope to attain of the vast stores 
of knowledge which lie hidden in the Divine Mind ! " The highest 
reach of human science," says Sir Wm. Hamilton, " is the scien- 
tific recognition of human ignorance. — 

" ' Qui nescit ignorare nescit scire. ' 

" There are two sorts of ignorance. We philosophize to escape 
ignorance, and the consummation of our philosophy is ignorance; 
we start from the one, we repose in the other; they are the goals 
from which and to which we tend, and the pursuit of knowledge is 
but a course between two ignorances, as human life is itself only a 
travelling from grave to grave. This learned ignorance is the 
rational conviction by the human mind of its inability to transcend 
certain limits ; it is the knowledge of ourselves — the science of 
man. * * * In fact, the recognition of human ignorance is 
•not only the one highest, but the one true knowledge ; and its first 
fruit, as has been said, is humility. Simple nescience is not found ; 
consummated science is positively humble. * * * But as our 
knowledge stands to ignorance, so stands it also to doubt. Doubt 
is the beginning and the end of our efforts to know ; for it is true. 
* * * A Ite ditbitat, q ui altius credit (the man who doubts much, 



116 

is he who believes more); so it is likewise true, l Quo magis quue- 
rimus eo magis dubitamus ' (the further we carry our inquiries, the 
more room shall we find for doubt and hesitation)." 

But let us not forget the prodigious advance which has been 
made in the industrial arts — the inventions, which have reduced 
the burdens of human labor and turned it into new channels for 
the elevation and improvement of the laboring classes. Think, for 
example, of the improved methods of heating and lighting houses ; 
of the lucifer match, which has taken the place of the old-fashioned 
tinder-box, flint and steel, which we used in our college days ! It 
was not till 1833 that phosphorus was used in the making of 
matches. See what a new industry was created. In two estab- 
lishments on the continent of Europe, more than twenty tons of 
phosphorus are annually used, giving employment to six thousand 
persons, and yielding the astonishing number of 44,800 millions of 
matches as an annual revenue. 

What an improvement in locomotion and transportation has 
been effected ! The stage-coach and the canal-boat have been 
superseded by the more convenient and rapid railway train ! Not 
only has travelling been cheapened, and immensely increased, but 
rendered more safe. In travelling by diligence in France, the 
average number of persons injured was one in every 30,000 car- 
ried, and in killed, one in every 335,000 ; but by railway, notwith- 
standing the average length of the journey has greatly increased, 
the former has been diminished to one in 580,000, and the latter 
to one in five millions ! 

Science is penetrating all our manufactures and occupations. 
It tends to abbreviate mental and bodily labor. The philosophy 
of matter is the foundation of all manufacturing arts and artistic 
processes. By the introduction of the steam engine, the galvanic 
battery, and machinery in general, the physical toil of the work- 
ing mechanic has been greatly mitigated by enabling him to direct 
the labor, instead of actually performing it. Science has also 
proved to be a great source of employment, as well as wealth. The 
telegraph of the United States alone provides employment for 
about 7,000 persons ; and the railways of the world employ about 
1,900,000 men. 



117 

But, after all, scientific recearch can only be successfully pur- 
sued by employing the highest motive, viz., a love of truth in 
preference to all things. It requires less ability to apply knowl- 
edge to new purposes, by means of invention, than to discover it. 
The men we reward the highest are not those who discover knowl- 
edge, but those who apply it. The most eminent discoverer, 
Faraday, received for his scientific lectures at the Eoyal Institution 
only £200 a year, and apartments, during many years ; and abso- 
lutely nothing for his great discoveries ; while the Archbishop of 
Canterbury receives £15,000 a year, besides the patronage of 183 
livings, and a palatial residence and a seat in the House of Peers. 
Prof. Henry lived on a small salary, about a third only of what is 
paid to a city judge in New York. 

So it has always been. The great thinkers, the great poets, the 
great artists, the great leaders, who, like Moses, after all their 
labors and sorrows for others, are permitted to come within sight 
of, but not to enter, the promised land ! Dante was driven into 
exile from his beloved Florence ; Plautus turned a mill ; Terence 
was a slave ; Boethius died in prison ; Tasso died in poverty ; 
Bentivoglio was refused admission into the hospital he himself had 
erected ; Cervantes died of hunger ; Camoens ended his days in an 
almshouse ; Vaugelas left his body to the surgeons to pay his debts, 
as far as it would go ; Galileo was put in prison for expressing an 
astronomical opinion ; John Bunyan wrote his " Pilgrim's Pro- 
gress " in Bedford Jail ; and John Milton sold the copyright to his 
"Paradise Lost" for £10 ! 

I must no longer trespass upon your good nature, but bring 
this protracted discourse to a close. Its preparation has been to 
me a pleasure and a pastime. I hope it may prove not altogether 
uninteresting to its readers. 

My Dear Classmates : 

We stand here to-day, like trees of some ancient forest, few and 
scattered ! The snows and tempests of many winters have swept 
over us, leaving us witnesses of the solitariness which now sur- 
rounds us! Many a stately trunk, with its broad spreading 



118 

branches, has been levelled with the dust ! Many a vigorous sap- 
ling began to lift its graceful top heavenward, when, alas ! it fell, 
no longer to lend its beauty to the leafy forest ! We are left 
standing memorials of the past ! The young sap no longer courses 
in our veins ! The woody fibre is losing its tenacity ! We are 
slowly dying ! Soon, not a tree in this beautiful forest of fifty 
years ago will be left ! The earth will remain. Other forests will 
throw out their branches to kiss the morning sun ! The clews of 
heaven, in the coming years, will distil on many a plant and flower ! 
The gleeful voices of children will be heard at morn and eventide. 
The song of birds and the bleating of flocks will make glad the 
hearts which have not yet begun to beat ! We shall be gone ! 
Transplanted, it is to be hoped, on the banks of the River of Life, 
in the Paradise of God ! All hail ! Blest Morn of the Resurrec- 
tion, which shall shine forever upon those who grew here, in the 
beauty of holiness, the trees of God's own right-hand planting. 
Till then, farewell ! 



APPENDIX. 



This Appendix will consist of : 

1. A reprint of the proceedings of the first meeting of the Class 

in 1842, together with the catalogue of the Class, poem and 
address. 

2. The proceedings of the Class-meeting, in 1862.' 

3. The proceedings of the last Class-meeting in 1882, with a 

revised catalogue, giving as full and detailed account of each 
member as could be obtained. It is a matter of regret that 
no information could be gained in regard to some ; and it 
is not known to the compiler of this catalogue whether they 
are living or dead. It would have been pleasant to have 
given the salient steps in the life-work of every man ; but 
this is an unwritten history, and can never be known. 

4. Correspondence, etc., etc. 



Decennial Anniversary. 



New York, June 1, 1842. 

To 

Dear Sir : 

At a Meeting held in this City, on the 11th of May 
last, at which several members of the Class which graduated at 
" Union College " in 1832, were present : the Undersigned were 
appointed a Committee to make the necessary arrangements for 
calling a Meeting of the Class at Schenectady, at the next 
commencement. 

Upon comparing notes at the Meeting, we were able to 
ascertain the residences of most of our Classmates ; and we shall 
address to each of them, an invitation to meet us there; which 
we trust will be cordially accepted. From the accidental and 
occasional interviews we have individually had with the Members 
of the Class, both in and out of the City, they have expressed but 
one wish on this subject. 

The President and several of the Faculty have expressed a 
desire that such a Meeting might take place, both on account of 
the pleasure it will afford them to meet the Class, as well as the 
lasting benefit it may be to the Institution to have so good a custom 
established. Should such a custom be adopted in succeeding 
years by the Alumni of the Institution, it will furnish us no 
occasion of regret, that its origin should be identified with the 
Class of 1832. 

We have therefore, named Tuesday, the day before commence- 
ment, as the time for such Meeting. It will then be ten years 



since we parted from each other and went forth into the world — ■ 
each upon his own errand — and before all those early recollections 
of school-boy days have entirely faded from our minds, let us be 
made ten years younger by renewing them. It will be delightful to 
greet each other once more on the Classic grounds of our Alma 
Mater, hallowed by so many agreeable associations. 

We trust you will not fail to be present. We shall rely upon " 
your presence and cooperation to increase the pleasure of the 
occasion ; and to contribute your share to the common fund of 
experience and good feeling to be there furnished, which has been 
accumulating during the last ten years. 

Our intentions will be made known to the Faculty without 
delay. 

We are sincerely and truly yours, 

G. McM. SPEIR, ) 

J. C. SMITH, 

A. P. CUMING-S, )- Committee. 

K SHOOK, I 

C. E. WEST, J 



K B.— The Residences of the following Members of the Class 
are unknown to us — if you should know where they reside, will 
you be kind enough to give them immediate notice of the above. 

Daniel Branch, 
Nelson Z. Graves, 
William P. Maulsby, 
Abram S. Marks, 
Francis L. Upson, 
Francis Welsh. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE CLASS WHICH GRADUATED IN 1832. 



At a meeting of Members of the Class which graduated at 
Union College in 1832, held at the Philosophical Hall, Union Col" 
lege, Schenectady, July 26th, 1842, the following were present : 

William Austin, Walteb R. Long, 

Orlo Bartholomew, James M. MacDonald, 

George Bowman, Merritt G. M'Koon, 

John W. Brown, Edward D. G Prime, 

Ethan B. Crane. Robert 0. Reynolds, 

Jonathan Crane, Jr. Hamilton W. Robinson, 

Abijah P. Cumings, Nelson Shook, 

Ephraim S. High, Jesse C. Smith, 
Charles E. West. 

On motion, Abijah P. CUMINGS was called to the chair, and 
Ethan B. Crane was elected secretary. 

Upon motion, Messrs. M'Koon, MacDonald and Reynolds were 
appointed a committee to make arrangements for the further pro- 
ceedings of the meeting. 

The meeting then adjourned to meet at the same place in the 
evening. At which time and place such committee made a report 
to the meeting, and upon their recommendation the following reso- 
tions were adopted : 

Resolved, That a catalogue of the Class be prepared containing 
the names and residences of the members of the Class, together 
with their respective occupations or professions, and such other 
information in regard to each member as this meeting may procure 
and shall deem proper to add to such catalogue. 

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to prepare a class 
letter or memorial. 

Resolved, That some member of the Class be selected to write 
a poem, as a tribute to the memory of our deceased classmates. 

Resolved, That a Committee of Publication be appointed, whose 
duty it shall be to cause the proceeedings of this meeting, together 



with the descriptive catalogue, circular letter, and poem, to be pub- 
lished and sent to the several members of the Class. 

Resolved, That a committee be appointed to call a meeting of 
this Class five years hence, and address the members for that pur- 
pose. That such committee select a member of this class to 
deliver an address at such meeting ; and that they also address 
circular letters of invitation to the members of the classes which 
graduated the year previous and the year subsequent to this Class 
to meet with us at such meeting. 

After some time passed in preparing the descriptive catalogue 
accompanying these proceedings — 

Messrs. Macdonald, West and Smith were appointed the com- 
mittee to prepare the circular address to the members of the Class. 

Eev. John W. Brown was appointed to write the poem to the 
memory of the deceased members. 

Messrs. Eobinson, Shook and Austin were appointed the Com- 
mittee of Publication ; and, 

Messrs. Smith, Macdonald, Eobinson, Bradford, Brown, Eey- 
nolds and M'Koon were appointed the committee to call the meet- 
ing of the Class five years hence, with power to fill vacancies in 
their number. (Signed) 

A. P. CUMINGS, Chairman. 
E. B. Crane, Secretary. 



CATALOGUE OF THE MEMBEES OP THE CLASS 

WHICH G-EADUATED AT UNION 

COLLEGE IN 1832. 

* prefixed designates such of the members as have been married ; f such as 

are deceased. 

f Thomas Allen, Counsellor-at-Law, Washington, D. C, late editor 
of the Madisonian. 
William Austin, Counsellor-at-Law, New York City. 
_ Roger Averill, Counsellor-at-Law, Salisbury, Conn.' 

* Rev. Orlo Bartholomew, Pastor of the First Congregational 

Church, Augusta, Oneida County, N. Y. 



* Eev. Amos Beach, Sector of Zion's Church, Louisville, Otsego 

Co., N. Y. 

* Samuel Belden, Counsellor-at-Law, Amsterdam, 1ST. Y. 
Rev. Abraham L. Bloodgood, Utica, 1ST. Y. 

George Bowman, Counsellor-at-Law, New York City. 

* Augustus A. Boyce, Counsellor-at-Law, Lockport, N Y. 
f Lovell Brooks, died at Princeton, Mass., in 1833, 1834. 

* Alexander W. Bradford, Counsellor-at-Law, New York City. 

Author of "American Antiquities." 

* John M. Bradford, Counsellor-at-Law, Geneva, N. Y. 

* Rev. Daniel Branch, Ohio. 

* Rev. John W. Brown, Rector of St. George's Church, and 

Principal of the Astoria Female Institute, Astoria, Long- 
Island, N. Y. 

f Robert T. Cameron, died on his journey to Charleston, S. C, in 
1833. 
Howard Chipp, Counsellor-at-Law, Kingston, N. Y, 

f Rev. Erastus Craft, perished in the steamboat Pulaski, in 1838, 
off Charleston, S. C. 

* Eliphalet Cramer, Counsellor-at-Law, Milwaukie, W. T. 

* Rev. Ethan B. Crane, Pastor of the First Congregational Church, 

Saybrook, Conn. 

* Rev. Jonathan Crane, Pastor of the 2nd Congregational Church, 

Attleboro', Mass. 
Samuel M. Crawford, M. D, Montgomery, Orange Co., N Y. 

* Abijah P. Cumings, editor of New York Observer, New York 

City. 
f William Dunn, killed in a duel, in 1833. 

j- Peter B. Eager, died at Montgomery, Orange Co., N. Y, soon 
after graduating. 
John T. Flournoy. 

Ferris Foreman, Counsellor-at-Law, Vandalia, 111., late U. S. Dis- 
trict Attorney for Illinois. 
James Gardener, Counsellor-at-Law, Augusta, Ga. 
f Butler Goodrich, Jr., died at the Theological Seminary, at 
Princeton, N. J, in 1836. 

* Harry A. Grant, M. D, New York City. 



* Nelson Z. Graves, Principal of Warrenton Female Seminary, 

Warrenton, 1ST. C. 

* William H. Hadley, New York City. 

f William Hemphill, died at Malta, Saratoga Co., N. Y., in 1833. 

Rev. E. Scuclder High, Elizabethtown, N. J. 
f Nelson A. Hinman, died during senior year in College ; his re- 
mains were interred in the College burying-ground. 

* John Howes, Counsellor-at-Law, Albany, N. Y. 
George N. Jerolomon, left College in junior year. 

* Rev. Charles Jones, Pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, 

Rome, N. Y. 
Hon. David R. R Jones, Counsellor-at-Law, New York City. 
John L. Kanouse, Merchant, Bouton Falls, N. J. 

* Lincoln B. Knowlton, Counsellor-at-Law, Peoria, 111. 

f Delos Lathrop, died at Albany, N. Y, in 1835, on his return 
from New York, where he had just received his license as 
Attorney-at-Law. 

* Rev. John N. Lewis, Pastor Presbyterian Church, Truxton, 

Cortland Co., N. Y. 

* Rev. Walter R. Long, Pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, 

Troy, N. Y. 

* James J. Lowrie, Union Village, Washington Co., N Y 
f William Mann, died at Watertown, N. Y 

William P. Maulsby. 

John M'Clellan, M.D., Resident Physician at the Lunatic Asy- 
lum, Blackwell's Island, New York City. 

* Rev. James M. Macdonald, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, 

Jamaica, Long Island, 
f Edward M'Geoch, died during sophomore year. 
f Andrew D. M'Farland, died at Worcester, Mass., in 1835. 

* Merritt G M'Koon, Principal of Oxford Academy, Oxford, 

Chenango Co., N. Y. 
Henry L. Messier, Poughkeepsie, N. Y 

* Daniel T. Moseley, Counsellor-at-law, Skeneateles, N. Y 

* Rev. E. D. G. Prime, Pastor of the Church of Scotchtown, 

Walkill, N Y. 
f Henry C. Rathbun, Attorney-at-law, died in Florida. 



9 

* Eev. J. H. Eaymond, Professor in Hamilton Literary and Theo- 

logical Institute, Hamilton, Madison Co., 1ST. Y. 
f Robert 0. Reynolds, Connsellor-at-law, Norwich, Chenango Co., 
NY. 

* Hamilton W. Robinson, Counsellor- at-1 aw, New York City. 

* Cornelius L. Russell, Counsellor- at-law, Ohio City, Ohio. 
Sidney Sawyer, M. D., Chicago, 111. 

* Rev. Abishai Scofield, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Peters- 

boro, Madison Co., N. Y 
f Nelson Shook, M. D , New York City. 

* Jesse C. Smith, Counsellor-at-law, New York City. 

* Gilbert McM. Spier, Counsellor-at-law, New York City. 

* Rev. Ephraim Taylor, Jamestown, N. Y. 

f John C. Taylor, drowned in the State of Alabama. 

Rev. James L. Thompson, late Missionary to Greece, New York 
City. 

Francis L. Upson, 
f James Walker, Engineer, Utica, N. Y 

Francis Welch. 

* Charles E. West, Principal of Rutgers Female Institute, New 

York City. 

* Rev. Jahleel Woodbridge, Pastor of Presbyterian Church, L. I. 
f Charles B. Woodburn, died at Spencertown, N. Y 

William V. S. Woodworth, Teacher, Orange Co., N. Y 



Deceased Members 


of the Class of 1832. 


Lovell Brooks, 


Delos Lathrop, 


Robert T. Cameron, 


William Mann, 


Erastus Crafts, 


Andred D. M'Farland, 


William Dunn, 


Edward M'Geoch, 


Peter B. Eager, 


Henry C. Rathbun, 


Butler Goodrich, Jr., 


John C. Taylor, 


Nelson A. Hinman, 




William Hemphill, 


Charles B. Woodburn. 



10 
THANATOUSION: 

AN ELEGIAC POEM, 

COMMEMORATIVE OF THE DECEASED MEMBERS OP THE CLASS GRADUATED 
AT UNION COLLEGE IN JULY, A. D. 1832. 



BY JOHN W. BROWN, A. M., 

Author of " Christmas Bells," "Virginia," "Merchant's Daughter," "Julia 

of Baise," &c, &c. 



Etsi procul a propinquis 

In morte quiescit, 
Amici plurimi, non sinelachrymis 

Sepulchrum revisent.* 

I. 

From various paths through which our steps have sped, 
From the world's crowded scene of toil and strife, 
With various fortune, in the race of life 

We come, these classic halls again to tread, 

To greet the living, and to mourn the dead : — 
Ten years of stern or bright vicissitude, 

Have passsd in action, big with hope or dread, 
And now we stand again, where oft we stood 
In those remember'd days, a youthful brotherhood. 

II. 

Beneath our eye the same fair scene reposes, 

The same bright sky is bending overhead ; 
Greenly, as then, yon mountain belt encloses 

The broad and peaceful plains around us spread ; 

O'er dell and height the summer sunbeams shed 
The same rich splendour, and the waveless breast 

Of yon blue river, winding through the bed 
Of these luxuriant valleys, lies at rest 
Beneath the deep'ning splendors of the burning west. 



From the monument erected to the memory of Nelson A. Hinman, in the college ceme- 
tery. 



11 



III. 

To tones, familiar ones, and ne'er forgot -, 
Warm hearts are here, whose pulses bound again. 
Warm hearts are here, unchang'd hy joy or pain, 

Ling'ring once more round this our parting spot-, 

The toil and change of life's eventful lot 
Have left youth's chords unbroken, and the flight 

Of time, the fell destroyer, darkens not 
Our meeting with his shadows, for the light 
Of other days brings back their old and calm delight 

IV. 

'Tis well that thus undimmYl, unmarr'd should be 

The golden links by early friendship wove, 
When, nerved by hope, from rankling passion free, 

In learning's toil, with virtuous zeal, we strove, 

While generous emulation kindled love. 
'Twere well, if ever in the girded race 

Of life, the bold aspiring mind could move 
Obedient to such impulse, and the trace 
Of boyhood's pure ambition shine in manhood's sterner face. 

V. 

Familiar forms are gathered, but not all, 

For many lov'd ones from our midst are gone ; 
The ear of death is closed to friendship's call, 

And the cold grave sends back no answering tone. 

One sleeps 'neath yonder monumental stone, 
Where our own hands did sepulchre his dust 

When life's fair prospect most enticing shone 
To every eye, ere hope had learned mistrust 
Or her rich visioned gleams by disappointment crosl. 

VI. 

One sleeps afar beneath a southern wave ; 

One, by false honor's phantom light lured on, 
Lies in his lone, unblest, and bloody grave, 

Yet not unwept by those whose love he won — 
A generous heart by passion's sway undone. 

One fell ere young ambition's daring wing 
Had battled with the storm, on which his eye 

Ujiiblenched, through year of labor lingering. 
Read promise of a triumph, pure and high ; 
In manhood's proudest hour called suddenly to die 



12 



VI. 

Many are gone, whose morning hours were blest 

With promise of a blight and glorious day ; 
Some gentle souls sank quietly to rest 

As tbe departing sunlight melts away 

'Mid the delicious bloom and balm of May. 
Some lie on distant shores, and virtuous deeds 

Have made their memory holy, and the ray 
Of blest example, to the gloom succeeds 
Cheering the heart that o'er the loved and lost ones bleeds. 

VIII. 

Fair, fair in memory's moonlight, are they all 
The young, the bright, the noble. It is true 

The silent grave returneth not our call, 

Our voice wakes not their slumber. From the view 
Of living men, from 'neath yon arch of blue, 

From this fair earth, forever are they gone. 
Yet be it ours to pay the tribute due 

To noble hearts, not with unmanly moan, 

But in that worthy grief which hallows sorrow's tone. 

IX . 
Bright be their memory ever, — sweet their rest ! 

May we, when called from life's eventful race 
To join their silent brotherhood, be blest 

With hope of heaven, through Christ, our Saviour's grace. 

Here, as we stand around the burial-place 
Of a departed brother, let us learn 

Life's solemn lesson, may no cares efface 
Its salutary precepts as we turn 
To the great world whose paths all end in death's sad bourne. 



The Committee, to whom was assigned the duty of preparing a 
Class-Letter, present the following: 

In May last, a Circular was issued at New York, inviting a 
meeting of the Class, which graduated in 1832, to take place at 
this institution, at its approaching commencement. That circular 
was sent to all whose places of residence could be ascertained. In 
compliance with the invitation, we, whose names appear in the 
Minutes herewith published, being assembled, have directed the 



13 

undersigned to express our affectionate salutations to absent mem- 
bers of the Class; and, for their information, to prepare a more 
full account, than could be gathered from the Minutes alone of our 
proceedings. 

The intimacies and friendships that existed, during our resi- 
dence at College, led us all to anticipate an agreeable interview. 
After a separation, and an absence from our Alma Mater for 10 
years, spent in different remote societies of the country, and in dif- 
ferent pursuits, we should have been greatly disappointed not to 
have found this an occasion of uncommon interest. The hope 
expressed in the circular, which convenes us, has, in some de- 
gree, been fulfilled ; we have felt ourselves made younger by the 
opportunity of renewing personal intercourse, in these familiar and 
endeared scenes of our early academical pursuits; and we shall 
separate and return to our various callings in life, with, at least a 
portion of the ardour and emulation with which we formerly bade 
adieu to these classic shades. In a word, we have endeavored, 
not without some success, to revive the feelings we had, when we 
were scholars together at this seat of learning, and looked out 
upon the great, busy, but as yet untried world. 

In a familiar and unreserved manner, we have communicated 
such facts, of a personal nature, as each one supposed would be 
interesting to Classmates. Particular inquiry has also been made 
respecting every member of the Class ; and with two or three ex- 
ceptions, interesting statements have been elicited. And could the 
remarks which have been made — and made in the kindest and 
most fraternal spirit — be here recorded, they would doubtless im- 
part more of the pleasure we have experienced in being present, 
than would be possible in any other way. Some of you perhaps 
would have preferred to answer for yourselves ; it is our sincere 
regret, as it is almost the only abatement to our enjoyment, that 
you are not present to do so. Be assured that nothing but the 
most hearty good- will has characterized every statement. It is a 
source of pride and pleasure, that so many of our number have 
already met with gratifying success, and enjoy prospects of exten- 
sive and lasting usefulness and honor, among their fellow-men. 

But although great cheerfulness has marked our present inter- 



14 

course, we trust it has been duly chastened by those mournful 
reflections, which it has not been in our power wholly to suppress. 
Some are absent whom we shall meet no more. They were en- 
deared to us. They all possessed their good qualities. Their 
virtues, we will treasure ; their failings, bury in the dust. How 
quickly perished all their hopes and aspirations! But the task of 
offering a suitable tribute to their memory, we will not forget, has 
been allotted to other hands; and we know how faithfully it will 
be performed. It is an affecting thought that more than a fifth of 
our class have already been called from this scene of earthly 
labor and trial ; and perhaps the chief duty, at future meetings, 
will be, to take from the catalogue of the living, to increase the 
catalogue of the dead. But this is not the place to indulge in 
such forebodings, or to encourage gloomy views of life. Even 
though our hearts, every moment "are beating funeral marches 
to the grave," be it ours to fill up life with its appropriate work,, 
never unmindful that only 

"That life is long which answers life's great end." 

It is due from us to notice, in this communication, our very cor- 
dial reception on the part of the Faculty of the college. We, of 
course, did not do them the injustice of supposing that they would 
regard our meeting with indifference, but the peculiar interest they 
have been pleased to express, was wholly unexpected. The insti- 
tution is highly favored in continuing to enjoy the paternal guar- 
dianship of the venerable Dr. ISTott. Dr. Proudfit, Dr. Potter, Dr. 
Yates, and Professors Jackson, and Eeed, are still occupying their 
various departments, with equal honour to themselves, and benefit 
to the institution. Dr. Joslin now fills a chair of instruction in the 
University of the City of New York. Professor Averill, who, 
though one of the youngest of the corps of instructors, gave prom- 
ise of being one of its brightest ornaments, has been called to an 
untimely grave. Our kind reception has entitled our Alma Mater 
if possible, to greater veneration and love, and demands that we 
should cherish to life's latest moment, the lessons of wisdom and 
piety we received under her fostering care. 



15 

While convened here it has been our privilege to attend a 
numerous meeting of the Alumni, at which several of the older 
graduates were present. His Excellency, the Governor of the 
State, presided; and interesting remarks were made relative to 
the importance of some concerted action to increase the College 
Library. 

A new Library Room has been fitted up with great elegance — 
among the embellishments of which, as not the least, we were 
pleased to notice a full length portrait of Dr. Nott — but the Li- 
brary remains much as it was, when we were undergraduates, and 
we must all know that it is far from being worthy of an institu- 
tion which ranks so deservedly high. At the meeting above men- 
tioned, a committee was appointed for the purpose of raising the 
sum of $10,000, to be applied to the improvement of the Library 
and Philosophical Apparatus, and such measures were taken, as it 
is hoped will secure the success of the enterprise. 

Classmates, you will notice in referring to the minutes of our 
proceedings, that we propose to have a similar meeting, five years 
hence. We are especially desirous that there should be, at that 
time, a full attendance. We have felt grateful to Him who has 
preserved us, during the interval of our separation — a period 
which must constitute no small portion of our lives ; it is our 
prayer, that the same beneficent Being would still watch over us, 
and bring us together, not only with continued proofs of his good- 
ness, but with more grateful hearts. 

Classmates ! do not forget the proposed meeting at the Com- 
mencement in 1847. 

JAMES M. MACDONALD, ) 
CHARLES E. WEST, ]■ Committee. 

JESSE C. SMITH, ) 

Union College, 
July 26, 1842. 



Tricennial Anniversary. 



New York City, July 8th, 1862. 



To 



Dear Sir : The undersigned, a Committee of the Class of '32, 
have pleasure in informing you that there will be a meeting of the 
surviving members of the Class, in connection with the approach- 
ing anniversary of Union College, on "Wednesday, the 23d inst., at 
2 o'clock in the afternoon, in the Laboratory of the South College. 

This being the thirtieth anniversary of our graduation, let us 
come together to renew the friendship of survivors, and bring into 
fresh remembrance the many who have deceased. 

Our venerable President yet survives. 

Respectfully yours, 

A. P. Cumings, ) 

H. W. Robinson, > Committee. 

E. R. Crane, 



N. B. — If you know any member of the Class whom you can 
reach, by letter or otherwise, please urge his attendance at the pro- 
posed meeting. 



17 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE TRICENNIAL ANNIVEBSABY. 



At a meeting of the Class of 1832, held at Union College, July 
23, 1862, were present Messrs. A. P. Cumings, C. E. West, H. W. 
Eobinson, Henry L. Messier, D. E. F. Jones, Orlo Bartholomew, 
J. C. Smith, Thomas Allen. 

On motion, Abijah P. Cumings was called to the Chair, and 
Thomas Allen was elected Secretary. 

On motion, the Catalogue of the Class was called, and all were 
accounted for as nearly as possible. Letters were read from E. B. 
Crane and E. Taylor. 

On motion, a Committee, consisting of Charles E. West, BL W. 
Eobinson, and the Chairman, was appointed to publish a corrected 
Catalogue of the Class, together with an address, and the minutes 
of this meeting. 

On motion, it was resolved that the Class will meet again in 
1867, and that the last named Committee will notify the same. 

Meeting adjourned. 

A. P. Cumings, Chairman. 



Thos. Allen, Secretary. 



Semi-Centennial Anniversary. 



Beooklyn, April 15, 1882. 
Mr. 

Sir: 

At a meeting of the Class of 1832, at Union College, July 23d, 
1862, there were present Messrs. A. P. Cumings, Chas. E. West, 
H. W. Robinson, H. L. Messier, D. R. F. Jones; 0. Bartholomew, 
J. C. Smith and Thomas Allen. 

On motion, A. P. Cummings was called to the Chair, and 
Thomas Allen was chosen Secretary. 

On motion, the Catalogue of the Class was read, and such in- 
formation given respecting its members as was in possession of 
those present. Letters of regret were received from E. B. Crane 
and E. Taylor. 

On motion, a Committee consisting of C. E. West, H. W. Robin- 
son and A. P. Cumings, was appointed to publish a corrected 
Catalogue of the Class, with an address, and the minutes of this 
meeting;. 

On motion, it was resolved that the Class meet in 1867, and 
that the Committee give notice of the same. 

Above is the record of the meeting in 1862. There has been 
no meeting of the Class since. As the Fiftieth Anniversary is so 
near at hand, it is desirable that its observance should be duly 
honored. It is thought that a larger meeting of the Class can be 
had in New York than in Schenectady. The Committee, there- 
fore, appoint a meeting to be holden at Delmonico's, Fifth Avenue, 
New York, on the 15th day of June next, at 4 o'clock P. M.. and 
earnestly solicit your attendance. It is also desired that you will 
forward, at your earliest convenience, any knowledge you possess 
of your Classmates, living or dead, that your Committee may be 
able to prepare a revised catalogue for publication before the meet- 
ing. Please address, 

CHARLES E. WEST, Chairman, 

138 Montague St., Brooklyn, N. Y. 



19 

Union College, April 26, 1882. 

Deab Sir : In the President's absence, I would say that Com- 
mencement occurs June 28th (Wednesday). 

Class might meet in No. 4 South Colonnade. 

It will give us all great pleasure to welcome here the veterans 
of '32. Very truly, 

Wendell Lamoroux 
Chas. E. West, Esq. 



138 Montague Street, 
Brooklyn, N. Y., May 5, 1882. 



Mr.. 



Sir: 

Circulars have been sent to the survivors of the Class of 
1832, calling a meeting at Delmonico's, New York, to celebrate its 
fiftieth anniversary. 

Replies of regret having been received that the meeting could 
not be held in Schenectady during Commencement week, it is 
thought best to recall the former invitation and appoint the meet- 
ing at No. 4 South Colonnade, Union College, June 27th, at 4 
o'clock P. M., the day before Commencement. 

CHAS. E. WEST, Chairman. 



Union College, May 17, 1882. 

Charles E. West, Esq., 

138 Montague St., Brooklyn, N. Y. : 

Glad of change of Class Re-union from New York to Union. 
Nothing like "home." Keys of rooms are at treasurer's office. 

Wendell Lamoroux. 



20 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL 
ANNIVERSARY. 



Pursuant to a call made by circular, dated Brooklyn, N. Y., 
May 5th, 1882, signed by Professor Charles E. West, chairman, 
the following members of the Class of 1832 met at No. 4 South 
Colonnade, Union College, Schenectady, on . the 27th day of 
June, 1882, at 4 o'clock, in the afternoon : Prof. C. E. West, of 
Brooklyn, N. Y., Lieut. Governor Roger Averill, of Danbury, 
Conn., Gen. Jesse C. Smith, of Brooklyn, Rev. Charles Jones, of 
Syracuse, N. Y, Hon. Cornelius L. Russell, of Cleveland, Ohio, 
Rev. Walter Long, of Wheeling, W. Va., and John L. Kanouse, 
Esq., of Boon ton Falls, N. J. 

Gov. Averill was called to the chair and J. C. Smith was 
appointed Secretary. Prayer was offered by Mr. Jones. 

Professor West read letters from William Austin, Esq. ; H. A. 
Grant, Jr., for his father, H. A. Grant, M.D. ; Rev. Jahlell Wood- 
bridge, A. A. Boyce, Esq., and Rev. Edward D. G. Prime. 

The list of graduates of the Class was then read from the college 
catalogue, and inquiries made from those present in reference to 
their knowledge or information as to other members of the Class, 
living or dead, and the residences of the living. 

Professor West read sketches of the lives of the following 
deceased members of the Class, to wit : Butler Goodrich, Alex- 
ander W. Bradford, John H. Raymond, Delos Lathrop, Lincoln 
B. Knowlton, Hamilton W. Robinson, John McClelland, David 
R. Floyd Jones, Abijah P. Cumings, James M, McDonald, and 
T. J. Farnham. 

The ages of the seven members present were taken and found 
to range between 70 and 73 years. 

The paper prepared by Professor West to be read before the 
Class included the history of the life of the Hon. Thomas Allen, 
deceased, but as that part of it had been read at the meeting of the 
College Alumni in the morning, its reading was omitted here, as 
was also the reading of that part of the paper written upon other 



21 

subjects. But, on motion, Professor West was requested to pub- 
lish the paper entire, at the joint expense of the members present, 
with the assistance of Jesse C. Smith and the Rev. E. D. G. Prime, 
and the meeting adjourned to meet at Given's Hotel, in the even- 
ing of the same day. At the informal meeting in the evening the 
personal history of the members present was given, but it was 
found that one evening was altogether too short a time to sketch 
even the smallest part of the lives of seven persons for a period of 
fifty years, and so another adjournment was had to the next morn- 
ing before the Commencement exercises of the college. On that 
morning every moment of time was used to the best advantage, 
and though but a faint outline of the personal experiences of each 
member could be given, enough of enjoj^ment was had to fully 
repay all who were present for the time and labor spent in coming 

together. 

J. C. Smith, Secretary. 



REVISED CATALOGUE, 1882. 



^Deceased. 

* Allen, Hon. Thomas, LL.D. ; St. Louis, Mo. Lawyer, editor, 

railroad builder, State Senator and Congressman. Died, April 

8, 1882. 
Austin, William ; New York. Lawyer. 
Averill, Hon. Roger ; Danbury, Ct. Lawyer, State Senator, Lieut 

Governor, etc. 

* Bartholomew, Rev. Orlo; Augusta. Died, March 7, 1864. 
Beach, Rev. Amos B., D.D. ; Ithaca. Rector of St. John's Church. 

* Belden, Hon. Samuel ; Amsterdam. Lawyer, judge, surrogate. 

* Bloodgood, Rev. Abraham L. ; Monroe, Mich. Presbyterian 

minister. Died, May 26, 1879. 
Bowman, George ; Redbank, 1ST. J. Lawyer. 
Boyce, Augustus A. ; Santa Barbara, Cal. Lawyer, clerk of 

United States Court, Utica. 

* Brooks, Lovell ; Princeton, Mass. Died, 1834. 



22 

^Bradford, Hon. Alexander, LL.D. ; New York. Corporation 
Attorney, author, lawyer, surrogate, member of the Legisla- 
ture, Fellow of the Eoyal Society of Denmark. Died, Nov. 5, 
1867. 

* Bradford, John M. ; Geneva. Lawyer. Died, 1861. 
Branch, Rev. Daniel ; Chester, Ohio. 

* Brown, Bev. John W. ; New York. Rector of St. George's 

Church, Astoria; Principal Astoria Female Institute, Poet, 
author of Julia of Baia, etc. 

* Cameron, Robert T. ; Green. Lawyer. Died at Charleston, S. 

C, 1833. 
Chipp, Howard ; Kingston. Lawyer. 

* Crafts, Rev. Erastns ; Hartwick. Perished in the steamboat 

Pulaski in 1838, off Charleston. 

* Cramer, Hon. Eliphalet; Milwaukee, Wis. Lawyer, banker, 

philanthropist. Died, Sept. 19, 1872. 
Crane, Rev. Ethan B. ; Brooklyn. 

* Crane, Rev. Jonathan, Jr. ; Kalamazoo, Mich. 
Crawford, Samuel M., M. D. ; Montgomery. 

* Cumings, Rev. Abijah P. ; New York. Editor of New York 

Observer from 1836 to the time of his death, May 13. 1871. 

* Dunn, William ; Clinton, La. Killed in a duel, 1833. 

* Eager, Peter B., M.D ; Montgomery. Died, 1833. 

* Farnham, T. J. ; Oregon. 

* Flournoy, John T. ; Hancock, Ga. 
Foreman, Ferris ; Vandalia, 111. 

Gardner, James ; New York. Editor of the Constitutionalist, 
lawyer, banker, etc. 

* Goodrich, Butler, Jr. ; Princeton, N. J. Died at Princeton 

Theological Seminary, Feb. 12, 1836. 
Grant, Harry A., M.D. ; Enfield, Ct. Practiced medicine in 

Albany, New York and Enfield. 
Graves, Rev. Nelson D. ; Middlebury, Vt. 
Hadley, Rev. William H. ; Portland, Me. 

* Hemphill, William ; Malta. Died, 1833. 

* High, Rev. E. Scudder; Streats, 111. Congregational clergy- 

man. Died, June, 1871. 



23 

* Hinman, Nelson A. ; Pike. Died in college, senior year, 1832. 

* Howes, John ; Albany. Lawyer. Died, 1846. 

Joralemon, George M. ; Somerville, N. J. Left college junior 

year. 
Jones, Rev. Charles ; Syracuse. Pastor of Presbyterian Church. 

* Jones, Hon. David R. F. ; S. Oyster Bay. Lawyer, member of 

the Assembly, Senator, Secretary of State, Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor. Died, Jan. 9, 1871. 
Kanouse, John L. ; Boonton Falls, N. J. Merchant, commis- 
sioner of Public Schools. 

* Kn owl ton, Lincoln B. ; Peoria, 111. Lawyer and judge. Died, 

1854 

* Lathrop, Delos ; Albany. Lawyer. Died, 1835. 

* Lewis, Rev. John N. ; Lodi. Died, Oct. 5, 1861. 

Long, Rev. Walter R. ; "Wheeling, W. Va Presbyterian Bible 
Agent. 

Lowrie, James J. ; Greenwich. Lawyer and judge. 

Mann, William ; Watertown. Died, 1839. 

Maulsby, Hon. William P. ; Frederick City, Md. Chief Jus- 
tice of Maryland. 

Marks, Abraham ; Lafayette, La. Lawy^\ 

* M'Clelland, John, M.D. ; New York. An eminent physician. 

Died, April 12, 1876. 

* Macdonald, Rev. James M., D.D. ; Princeton, N. J. Pastor of 

Presbyterian Church in Princeton, author. Died, April 19, 
1876. 

* M'Geoch, Edward. Died during sophomore year, 1830. 

* M'Farland, Andrew D. ; Worcester, Mass. A student-at-law. 

Died, 1835. 

* M'Koon, Merritt G. ; Oxford. Principal of Oxford Academy. 

Died 1854 

* Messier, Hugh L. ; Fishkill. Agriculturist. 

* Moseley, Daniel T. ; Skeneateles. Lawyer. 

Prime, Rev. Edward D G, D.D. ; New York. Pastor, editor of 
the New York Observer, author, etc. 

* Rath bun, Henry B. ; Florida Lawyer. 



24 

* Baymond, Eev. John H., LL.D. ; Pougkkeepsie. President of 

Vassar College. Died, August 14, 1875. 

* Eeynolds, Bobert 0. ; Cortlandville. Lawyer. 

* Eobinson, Hon. Hamilton W. ; New York. Judge of th e 

Court of Common Pleas, New York. Died, April 7, 1879. 

Eussell, Hon. Cornelius L. ; Cleveland, Ohio. Lawyer, capi- 
talist. 

Sawyer, Sidney, M.D. ; Chicago, 111. 

Scofield, Eev. Abishai, Georgetown. 

* Shook, Kelson, M.D. ; New York. Died, 1854. 

Smith, Gen. Jesse C. ; Brooklyn. Lawyer, Surrogate of Kings 

Co., State Senator, 1862-3. 
Spier, Hon. Gilbert McM., LL.D. ; New York. Lawyer, Judge 

of Superior Court. 
Taylor, Eev. Ephraim ; Akron, Ohio. Teacher and author. 

* Taylor, John C. ; Schenectady. Drowned in Alabama. 
Thompson, Eev. James L. ; Astoria. 

Upson, Francis L. ; Lexington, Ga. Lawyer. 
Walker, James ; Utica. Civil Engineer. 
"Welch, Eev. Francis ; Perry, Me. 
Wells, Eev. Noah H. ; Peekskill. Author. 
Wyman, Thaddeus L. ; W. Springfield, Mass. 
Wiggin, Benjamin ; Boston, Mass. Lawyer. 
Wikoff", Henry ; Philadelphia, Pa. 

AVoodbridge, Eev. Jahleel ; Wessen, Miss. Pastor of Presby- 
terian Church and teacher in Wessen. 

* Woodburn, Charles B. ; Spencertown. Teacher. Died, 1833. 
Woodworth, William V. S. ; Northampton. Teacher. 

West, Charles E., M.D., LL.D; Brooklyn. Principal of Eutgers 
Female Institute, New York, 1839 to 1851 ; of Buffalo Female 
Academy, 1851 to 1860 ; of Brooklyn Heights Seminary, 
1860 to present time. Admitted as attorney to the Supreme 
Court of New York, 1844 ; received the honorary degrees of 
M.A. from Columbia College in 1844; M.D. from the Uni- 
versity of New York, 1845, and LL.D. from Eutgers College, 
New Jersey, 1851. Fellow of the Eoyal Antiquarian Society 
of Denmark, 1849. 



25 



THE LIVING MEMBEES OF THE CLASS IK 1882 AS 
FAE AS CAN BE ASCEETAINED. 



Austin, William, 
aveeill, eoger, 
Beach, Amos, 
Bowman, George, 
Boyce, Augustus A., 
Branch, Daniel, 
Chipp, Howard, 
Crane, Ethan B., 
Crawford, Samuel B., 
Forman, Ferris, 
Grant, Harry A., 
Graves, Nelson Z., 
Hadley, William H., 
Jones, Charles, 
Kanouse, John L, 

WOODBRIDGE, 



Long, Walter E, 
Lowrie, James L. 
Maulsby, William P., 
Prime, Edward D. G, 
Eussell, Cornelius L, 
Sawyer, Sidney, 
scofield, abishai, 
Smith, Jesse C, 
Spier, Gilbert McM., 
Taylor, Ephraim, 
Upson, Francis L., 
Welsh, Francis, 
West, Charles E., 
Wiggin, Benjamin, 
Wikoff, Henry, 
Jahleel. 



Total, 31. 



26 

ORDER OF COMMENCEMENT IN UNION COLLEGE, 
JULY 25, 1832. 



Music and Distribution of Orders. 
PR A TER. 



Sal. ad Gub. 


- 


- By C. E. West, 


Phil. Orat. 


Sal. ad Curat. 


- 


" S. Sawyek, 


Class Orat. 


Study of the Law, 




" J. L. Kanouse, 




Study of Hebrew, - 


- 


" C. Jones, 




Study of Medicine, 


- 


" A. W. Bradford, 




The Theatre, 


- 


" W. Austin, 




Natural Theology, 


- 


" J. WOODBRIDGE, 




National Law, 


- 


" J. J. LOWRIE, 




Greek Literature, 




" J. L. Thompson, 




The Civil Law, 


- 


" W. Mann, 




Sacred Music, 


- 


" E. B. Crane, 




The Study of Logic, 


- 


'• D. Branch, 




Influence of Russia, 


- 


" L. B. Knowlton, 




Latin Oration, 


- 


" E. D. G. Prime, 




African Colonization, 


- 


- " P. B. Eager, 




The Triumph of Greece, 


- 


" J. M. Bradford, 




French Oration, 


- 


- '* .T. C. Taylor, 




New York, 


' " 


" W. Dunn, 
music. 




Political Constitutions ol 


Europe, 


- By D. T. Moseley, 


Class Orat 


The State of the Press, 


- 


" H. W. Robinson, 




Italy, - 




" N. Shook, 




Mental Philosophy, 


- 


" J. B. Crane, 




National Degeneracy, 


- 


" E. Cramer, 




Doom of Genius — a Poem, 


" J. W. Brown, 








MUSIC. 




Russia, 


- 


- By W. R. Long, 


Phil. Orat 


The American Novelist, 


- 


" D. R. F. Jones, 


Inst. " 


Military Glory, 


- 


" R. AVERILL, 


Phil. " 


The Times, 


- 


" W. H. Hadley, 


Inst. " 


Decline of the Ottoman 


Empire, 


" J. Gardner, 


Inst. " 


The Fall of Warsaw, 


- 


" G. McM. Spier, 


Adel. " 


The Progress of Mind, 


- 


" 0. Bartholomew, 


Adel. " 


Congress of Nations, 


- 


" A. P. Cumings, 


Adel. '• 




Degrees Conferred. 






PRATER. 





Correspondence. 



Danbury, Conn., April 18, 1882. 
Dr. C. E. West : 

My Dear Sir: Your letter of the 11th inst. has been received. 

I had not forgotten that the fiftieth anniversary of our gradu- 
ation at college is near at hand. I have many reminders that my 
college days were a long, long time ago. 

A few weeks since I met in Washington some gentlemen 
from Schenectady who referred to the approaching anniversary of 
the graduation of the Class of 1832, and expressed an earnest wish 
that it might be appropriately commemmorated. In this I expressed 
my hearty concurrence. I am in no way committed as to the place 
of meeting. I have not the means at hand to form an opinion as 
to the number, or the present residence of our surviving class- 
mates. If the attendance of a greater, or indeed an equal number 
could be secured at a meeting to be held at Schenectady, I would 
individually prefer the college to any other place. I will, how- 
ever, endeavor to conform to any arrangement that you and those 
about you whom you may consult may decide to make, and will 
co-operate. 

I know nothing of late of Dr. H. A. Grant. A few years ago 
he resided in Enfield, in Hartford County, Conn. 

Hoping soon to hear again from you on this subject, I remain, 
Truly >urs, ROGER AVERILL. 



Syracuse, New York, May 2, 1882. 
Prof. Chas. E. West: 

My Dear Sir : I have had some correspondence with Mr. G. 
M. Spier, of New York, as to a class-meeting at Schenectady next 
Commencement. We left Union in 1832, a half century since, and 
I have had an earnest desire for a reunion on the old college 
grounds. This, to me, would be very pleasant. Where we used 



28 

to see the memorable and most excellent President Nott — again 
to gather and call to mind the past, for me would have a charm. 
Time, place, and associations would have much to do with my 
really enjoying a gathering. I have just received a few lines from 
Mr. Spier, and on another page your printed words. At this stage 
I think it would be quite impracticable for me to meet at Del- 
monico's, Fifth avenue, New York city. This would accommodate 
our Class who are in or near by New York. I think, however, it 
would be fatal to any general gathering of our classmates who 
may yet live and be scattered far and near. Please, however, 
inform me, so far as you are able, how many and who may be 
expected f 

In 1872 I was at our Alma Mater and shall hope to be in 1882. 
I can make no special report for any but myself. 
With respect, yours sincerely, 

CHAELES JONES. 

{cpBK) 

Address: Eev. Charles Jones, 

146 West Onondaga St., Syracuse, JST. Y. 



Monroe, Mich., May 15, 1882. 
Mr, Charles E. West: 

Dear Sir : Your circular relating to the anticipated meeting of 
the Union College Class of 1832 is received, and was mislaid, 
which is my apology for not writing sooner. My father, Rev. A. 
L. Bloodgood, went home May 26th, 1879. A statement of some 
facts relating to his life was sent by request to Rev. Henry A. 
Hazen, Auburndale, Mass., compiler of vital statistics for the 
" Congregational Year Book," for publication in the same. 

Not having a copy of the statement, I would respectfully refer 
you to the above-named gentleman, should you wish for the facts 
therein contained. Yours truly, • 

LYNOTT BLOODGOOD. 

P. S. — Should you feel so inclined, I would be pleased to 
receive a copy of the class catalogue when published. 

Respectfully, &c. L. B. 



29 

Enfield, Conn., May 22, 1882. 
Charles E. West, Esq., 

Chairman of Com. of Class of '32 : 
Dear Sir : Your circular to your classmate, my father, reached 
him when he was confined to his bed by a long and dangerous 
illness. Not thinking it would continue so long, he has deferred 
answering till this time, hoping he might be present. He is now 
very weak and no better, and has asked me to write you and say 
how much he anticipated from being present at the reunion in 
June, but that now he sees it will be impossible. Even if he 
recovers from his present sickness, it will be many days after the 
appointed one before he will be able to leave his room. As your 
circular desires information of other classmates, living or dead, he 
wishes me to tell you that his college chum, the Eev. A. L. Blood- 
good, died at Monroe, Michigan, the summer of 79. 

Yours truly, H. A. GBANT, Jr. 



Santa Barbara, May 27, 1882. 
Prof. Chas. E. West: 

My Dear Sir : Your printed circular of 5th inst. inviting me 
to meet my dear surviving classmates of 1832, at their semi-cen- 
tennial gathering, the 27th of June next, at Union College, finds 
me near 3,000 miles distant, and situated so that I find it quite 
impossible to join the very interesting twelve named in your accom- 
panying letter, viz. : "Allen, Averill, Grant, Smith, Prime, Austin, 
"Boyce, E. B. Crane, Bowman, Bussed, West, Maulsby." 

And since you wrote it, poor Allen has been called to, as we 
trust, a sphere where we may all hope to meet. 

After a residence of over sixty years in my native State of New 
York I was persuaded in 1875 to remove to this Pacific slope, to 
spend the evening of my days under the mild and benignant 
atmosphere for which this coast of California is so celebrated. 

Trusting that I may get a full report of your proceedings, and 
may yet meet some of my old classmates, 

I remember, with sincere affection and esteem, yours, 

ANSON AUGUSTUS BOYCE. 



80 

Wesson, Miss., June 21, 1882. 
Dr. Chas. E. West: 

My Dear Classmate: I shall not be able to be present at the 
festival of June 29th, as I had hoped to be, and will write to you 
a few words, which may not be unacceptable to you and the asso- 
ciates of fifty years ago. Haud immemor, I shall be present in 
heart to greet the boys. I see them very distinctly, and if the 
years have left footsteps, or scattered frost, and if they are getting 
to be old boys, I shall not see it. In my case, youth is immortal. 
He was a young man even if he did sit near a sepulchre. 

I have never had much to say about myself, because there are so 
much better models and experiences to present to the world, which 
I have, in my poor way, been trying to make better. But on this 
occasion it will be proper to say something as to the course of a 
life which started from old Union in the July of 1832. Would 
that I could find a glass which would enable me to trace the path 
of each of the fifty who on that day went forth from the halls to 
meet the realities of the life which then were all sunshine. 

Till '35 I spent at Princeton Theological Seminary. One year 
I lived, riding much on horseback, in Maryland ; then went to 
Mississippi, where I spent two years ; then to Louisiana, where I 
remained fifteen years ; then to Kentucky fourteen more, and in 
1871, necessitated to seek a northern climate by the illness of a 
member of my family, returned to this State, and the place where 
I now reside. That does not fill the entire fifty years ; but some- 
times, in a Bohemian way, I gypseyed. Thus I spent 1870 in Mis- 
souri, and perhaps should have been there till now, but for the 
calamity in my family, which drove me Southward. At times 
I have taught, usually in connection with preaching, which I 
always considered my life-work. For several years I was chaplain 
to the Louisiana penitentiaiy, and have acted in that capacity to 
the Legislature occasionally. 

My pastorates have been, Baton Bouge, La., fourteen years ; 
Henderson, Ky., twelve; Wesson, Miss., ten. 

I have seven children. Two are ministers of the Presbyterian 
Church, of whom one, just through his theological course, is under 
appointment as missionary to China. All are members of the 



31 

church, two being ruling elders. My daughters, one sixteen, 
another fourteen, are now at home for school vacation. 

I have written no books, but have produced innumerable arti- 
cles for the newspapers. I have been an omniverous reader, nor do 
I see any signs of decadence in that respect. I believe that I live 
in the present as much as I did at thirty, trying to keep along with 
the age — which, I believe, we sometimes hinted in our college 
days, is "remarkable." I have taken a pretty fair look at the 
" advanced thought, " and " new departures," " new basis of mor- 
als," et cetera, but the God of the Bible, and the Christ Jesus of 
the Gospel, are as much realities to me as the physical universe. 

I am sorry for the honor of Union that I cannot report myself 
a great man. I have been blessed with warm friends, and in some 
instances have been strong enough to make enemies. Now and 
then I find evidences of advanced years, such as a disposition to 
preach an hour and a quarter, and I doubt whether I should climb 
the stairs of N. C. S. S. to No. 14 as I used to do, three steps at 
once, were I to visit the classic shades. 

Memory is very busy as I write these lines, but it is only what 
the occasion will bring out more vividly at the reunion. Grand 
old Dr. Nott ! Prosser with his " rather ! " 

Beloved classmates! Gratefully and hopefully I greet you, 
and adieu. Even sunsets are glorious, and there are worlds beyond. 
In kindest remembrance, your classmate, 

JAHLEEL WOODBRLDGE. 



[From the Chancellor of the Regents of the University.'] 

My Dear Dr. West: "Was not Hon. Thomas Allen a classmate 
of yours, and will not you respond to the announcement of his 
death at the Alumni meeting at the coming commencement at 
Union College? Can you suggest anything for the report? 
Please let me hear from you. 

Yours very truly, H. R PIEKSON. 



32 • 

Union College, July 18, 1854. 

My Bear Sir: Your letter, enclosing the resolutions of the 
Alumni of Union College at Buffalo, has this day reached me 
through the post-office. Though long in coming, this unexpected 
testimony of respect from so many beloved pupils is not the less 
acceptable on that account. Please accept for yourself, and present 
to the other Alumni in your vicinity, my grateful acknowledg- 
ments for the filial sentiments which said resolutions express. 
That a good Providence may crown their lives on earth with bless- 
ings, and that we may all meet eventually in heaven, is the prayer 
of yours, affectionately, 

ELIPH*. NOTT. 

Chaeles E. West, Esq. 



[Letter from Padre Secchi.~] 

Kome, July 27, 1877. 

My Dear Mr. West : I have received to-day your very kind letter, 
and I am very thankful to you for the good memory you have of 
me. I have tried your prism with the stars and the sun, and it 
works very well, but it weakened the light too much on account 
of the great diffusion ; no doubt it would be the best where there 
is great light, but for small stars the lines are difficult to be seen 
for defect of light. I have also myself seen one of the spectro- 
scopes of MacLean, but I found it rather poor for great stars — the 
diffusion is too small ; for the small ones it follows that the sepa- 
ration is so small that the lines . cannot be seen. I think it is a 
joujou for amateurs. One cannot have measures at all, not even 
relative measures of the distances since the telespectroscope is con- 
verted by it into a galilean combination. Besides, M. Browning is 
not right when he says that several stellar spectroscopes have been 
invented, but that all of them have been found unsatisfactory. Those 
which I have invented since 1866 are the best used by me during 



33 

these last twelve years and with the greatest satisfaction, and 
nobody has found anything better. 

The Count Oastracane is not now in Rome, but in England ; he 
will not come back until next winter. Then I will inform him of 
what you have written to me. 

I hope you are in very good health, and that you have been 
very much pleased with your travels in Europe. 
I am respectfully, truly yours, 

P. H. SECCHI 

DIR. E DELL'OSS. COLL.° ROM ° 



jW^ 



FINIS 



